Water

We are in an interesting position right now in Calgary. On Wednesday June 5 there was a break in a major water main. One of the illustrations I saw compared the size of the regular delivery pipes to a pizza and the main that broke to a huge dump truck. That did rather put things in perspective.

There are road closures, city pools are closed, and in the fitness centres that are open showers are not available. In one community water isn’t available in the normal delivery system and residents get their water from portable water wagons. As I write this on Saturday, the latest news says that the earliest lifting of restrictions will be in 5 to 7 days.

So what is being asked of ordinary Calgarians who aren’t in the immediate area of the break? Take fewer showers, don’t use the dishwasher, don’t do laundry, don’t water lawns or plants, don’t wash cars, sidewalks or houses, flush the toilet less often. All of that is pretty much common sense when there might not be enough drinking water to go around it we don’t conserve it.

There are a couple of things this has done for me: one is to make me incredibly grateful for the infrastructure we have and how well it works  most of the time. The other is how many useful things I have learned from camping, first with my parents when I was a small child, then later in a tent both in the front country and in the back country on canoe trips.

We experienced some issues with plumbing when we did our latest renovation. We had a large detergent container that we had washed out strapped to a step stool with a basin below it for washing our hands in the bathroom because the utility sink in the shop was our one source of water for most household needs. We didn’t have to think very long about how to solve the problem of getting water to the bathroom because we are used to using this system on the seat of a picnic table when we are camping.

Another thing camping taught me about water use is that I can wash my hair using water from a squeezy bike bottle. I don’t wash my hair every day and this morning I decided to allow myself two bottles of water to do the job. I used about 1 ⅓ bottles and I could have done the job with a single bottle if the warm water rinse hadn't felt so good. Was it as good as a nice warm shower? No, of course not, but it worked and that’s the important thing.

Yesterday when I washed the dishes by hand, I filled a large bowl that needed washing anyway with water, added dish soap and set it in the sink. I then took a spray bottle and filled it with water so I could rinse the soap off the dishes before drying them. I don’t keep the faucet running to rinse dishes but I do run water over batches of them at a time to remove soap.

Anyone who eats oatmeal knows that it leaves a sticky mess in the bowl. I often run my bowl under the tap before putting it in the dishwasher to avoid baking any of the oatmeal on. This morning I used the spray bottle and a paper towel to get the remaining oats out. A paper towel probably isn’t the best environmental choice but at least it can go in the compost and I don’t need more water to rinse out a dish cloth.

I was going to do laundry on Thursday and I’m eyeing the pile of dirty clothes as they pile up. If we run out of socks and underwear we can always hand wash a few pairs. We have plenty of other clothes to last us a week without doing laundry.

When we get our regular water service back I’ll be even more conscious of how I use water. We are thinking of changing from a turf lawn to some other type of ground cover. We have taken a small step in that direction by seeding white clover in the spots of the lawn that were killed during our latest home renovation. I rather like the clover patches and the bees seem to enjoy them as well.

While water restrictions are a minor inconvenience for us, I'm reminded of people who don’t have a safe and reliable supply of drinking water. I’m going to end the blog here and go and think about that for a while.