Monday, October 1, 2018

Water Wise

Living in Santa Marianita, Ecuador we do not have municipal water. Well, we do but it does not work the
same as in Cambridge, ON or even in Manta, the nearest city to us! Where we are living we have a
cistern. What is a cistern you ask? Well, quite simply it is a box that holds water. (Sidenote: I remember
the first time I learned about the word and origins of cisterns. I was traveling in Turkey and visited the
famous Basilica Cistern.) So, here in Santa Marianita we have a cistern. :)




Since we are spending this year traveling with a desire to learn and explore we felt that having a cistern
was the best way to teach ourselves the true meaning of water conservation. Now while living on a
beach with the ocean crashing into us everyday you would think that we would not be concerned with
water, but while there is SO much of it to look at all the time, clean fresh water is not the same as the
ocean.


So began our mission of measuring our water consumption. Back at home we get our water bill that tells
us our water consumption but here we can SEE our water source decreasing from the cistern throughout
the day as we shower, wash dishes, do laundry, wash our hands, flush toilets etc. How lucky are we to
have this learning opportunity right here!!! So began the mission to understand how much water we use
and how to use it most effectively.


How do we conserve water showering and washing hair? Do you realize how much water it takes to
wash your hair? The time it takes when your hair is long and full of sand from the beach? When we are
ready for our shower we get a few large bowls ready and catch the first water that is still cold into one
large bucket.
Turn water off.
We take that bucket of water and dump it over our head to get our hair nice and wet and then we lather
the soap in and scrub all the sand and salt out of our hair. We turn the water back on but keep the
buckets at our feet at the base of the shower to catch any other excess water. We can use that water to
dump over our hair again to get the majority of the soap, then rinse the rest with water from the shower.
Turn water off.
Now is the time for the hair conditioner. We comb conditioner through our hair while the water is off and
use some of the water that has been caught in buckets to lather our body. When ready to rinse hair and
body we turn water back on always using the buckets to catch excess water. This last bit of water can
then be used post shower to water the plants! Through this process we are able to have a DYI mini grey
water system.


Washing dishes? We have a very similar procedure where we catch water and use that to water our
garden. (Our gardening experience will be a blog post soon too!) In essence we are using our own
wastewater.


We took things one step further and decided to mark the cistern with levels so we could have a better
visual measure of how much water we consumed through our daily activities. These is especially helpful
since we recognize that if there water is being consumed wastefully and too quickly we will not have
enough for a hot shower.




Now, do not misunderstand me water is not scarce! When water is needed, like this morning, I simply
text the truck to deliver and fill the cistern back up! It costs $25 each time we get a water delivery.
However, we are not just flushing our water away down drains but learning how to take small steps to be
better water stewards.





Peace, smiles and fresh water!
Amy xo


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