The Top 10+ Ways To Conserve Water
At times, one of the frustrations of living in Nampula, Mozambique is that often our running water or electricity will turn off for a few hours or a day. Recently however, we have gone multiple days at a time without city water. Two times in particular the water was off for about a 6 ½ days! Now we do have a storage tank to help out in times such as these, but even so, because we never know when the water will come back on we always have to be careful as to how we use that reserve water.
Now we would like to share with you, our “tips” for conserving water – should you ever go through a similar thing.
1. Take bucket baths – ½ a pitcher should get you wet and then you may have 1 ½ pitchers to rinse off the soap. If long hair MUST be washed then mix the shampoo and conditioner together to avoid double rinsing – use only a touch of each and allow yourself no more than 4 pitchers.
2. Bathe while standing in a large tub so you can catch your bath water.
3. Use the recycled bath water to force flush the toilet! NOTE: added benefit is that the soap in the bath water helps clean the toilet.
4. All boys go outside to use the bathroom (your toilet then needs flushed less frequently)
5. Never flush the toilet until it’s been used at least 3-5 times. Though do keep the lid down between uses so that odor and/or flies do not permeate the house.
6. Pray for rain and catch rain water from your gutters in big buckets!
7. When it rains, run outside wearing your swimsuit and take a bath; be especially sure to wash your hair.
8. Spend $20.00 on disposable diapers that would only cost you $10.00 in the States (since you’re of course not doing any laundry at this point this creates less build-up). If you can find them, use paper plates to cut back on the dishes you have to wash.
9. For washing the dishes you must fill two pans – one with soapy water and the other with rinse water. When the wash water is filthy and the rinse water is so soapy it no longer rinses then dump your wash water and allow the rinse water to become your wash water – therefore you’re only re-filling one pan to continue washing.
10. Don’t mop the floor, which needs to be mopped everyday because of all the dust and dirt, but just look at it in a different light a positive light! You are saving wear and tear on the mop and bucket you normally use!
Finally, don’t move one muscle. Why? Because it is very hot and any movement causes one to sweat profusely. Since you cannot do laundry and need to wear clothes more than one day you don’t want to sweat! Just lie on the cold cement floor! HA. Also, don’t hold any babies that will spit up on you; oh yeah, we have a baby that spits up so, just forget about this. HA.
Hope this helps.
Dan
