Saving Water

HOW can municipalities effectively combat the challenges of a prolonged drought without compromising essential services?

Amidst the persistent drought plaguing municipalities in Spain, many municipalities have taken significant strides to address the water scarcity issue.

Typical measures include cutting off the water supply to beach showers, reducing potable water usage for park and garden irrigation by half, cutting back on watering of golf courses and temporarily closing water parks.

While the actual water consumption from beach showers is minimal, councils aims to use this measure as a means to raise awareness among the public about the responsible use of resources.

Traditional Spanish Methods Of Saving Water

RAINWATER harvesting: A common practice is to collect rainwater for various household tasks, such as watering plants, mopping floors, and cleaning things. This can be done by installing rainwater harvesting systems on the roof or in open areas of the home.

When preparing to take a shower take a bucket along. Instead of letting cold water run away while it gets up to temperature, use a bucket to collect it. This way, water can be collected that would normally go to waste, where it could be used for other household tasks.

Turning off the tap while washing dishes and brushing teeth. This helps save a significant amount of water that would otherwise be wasted if the tap remained open throughout the process.

Homespun Methods Of Water Conservation

FOR more ideas here are some methods gathered from residents in a Euro Weekly News survey.

• 'I have a tank and water is expensive, so if I have bath, I leave it in and use the water to wash my plates. I add soap! I also filled the toilet with bricks, so it only makes a little [flush] and saves 5 litres,' Judith van Trump, Benissa, Alicante.

• Another resident, Michael Santos, commented: 'Living in a small community of just eight properties, the most expensive cost we have is water for both the pool and gardens. We have cut the length of time that each garden receives communal water. . . reduced from 10 minutes to 3 minutes.'

• Another tipster said: 'Always use a dishwasher as it is far more environmentallyfriendly than washing by hand as it uses less water.' It is estimated that hand­washing dish es uses up to 3.5 times more water than a dishwasher.

• When visiting the toilet is it always necessary to flush? Without going into too much detail there is the well known phrase: 'If it's yellow let it mellow, if it's brown flush it down,' a memorable contribution from Mayor Ed Koch, who reportedly urged New Yorkers to take up the practice during a water shortage.

• Although it seems sensible to run eco modes on both dishwashers and washing machines in actual fact whilst they may use less electricity it is possible that more water is used is this longer cycle, so consider changing to quick more as it may cost more but could save precious water.

• Also, if you use a water softener do check whether it’s metered or unmetered as if unmetered, it automatically regenerates on a timer whether it needs to or not, thus using a lot of unnecessary water.

• The metered option regenerates only when it needs to and therefore uses less water says Angela Wright from Benidorm

• Animal lovers, if you are running the hot water tap, fill the dog’s bowl whilst the water is still cold so it doesn’t just disappear down the drain. Paul Chalmers Estepona

• An anonymous reader contributed, Save water – drink wine.

In Conclusion

BY taking decisive steps to conserve water resources, actions already taken have created an example for other municipalities facing similar drought challenges.

What we all hope to see shortly is some monsoon type weather lasting long enough to top up the aquifers (underground water catchment areas) and reservoirs in the short term and the creation of more desalination plants by the coasts in the long term.