That is not meant to be a question arousing the defence that you would have one this morning, but you were in a rush, and that you do often enough thank you very much.
A bit like with processed soap, showering is a relatively new invention. And like with all new fashions, they can be a bit overused. I once knew a student who, after having washed that very morning, would even return from class breaks with freshly-wet hair from yet another shower.
In reality, feeling 'clean' may be more linked to ethics than hygiene. Tessa Zanardo, a science student at Lyon University, told me how over-washing can even be counter-productive for staying clean and healthy. "When you wash", she explained, "you stimulate your skin's glands that produce the lipids to protect itself. By over stimulating them, you can make your hair appear dirtier than someone's who washes less often"... not to mention the damage and allergies soap chemicals can bring to your skin and beaches, as I have seen this summer at beaches losing their EU 'Blue Flag' status for cleanliness.
Water use for showering is expected to double over the next 20 years in the UK, following current trends. This study by Liverpool John Moores University has even found that those identifying themselves most with Green causes, are most likely to be showering the heaviest. http://worldplumbinginfo.com/article/scientific-look-adapting-showers-water-conservation?page=0,-1 In order to stay clean and feel good about ourselves, there are many other things we can do. Aside from sweat being an excellent temperature regulator in summer of winter, natural pH neutral soaps such as Alep can be absorbed by the skin without being flushed away.
At the same time, this precious commodity has already been shown to be the subject of conflict and scarcity. According to the World Health Organisation, meeting the MDG target for drinking water is currently on track (7: To half the proportion of people without sustainable access to safe drinking water and basic sanitation) Mentioning a proportion cut could still see the actual number of people increase dramatically however. Changing our habits in a fashionable Roman-style revolution will be needed to help reverse this trend aside from the work of aid agencies and render water use better and fairer.
The problem of too much water usage is easy to solve. Give every household an allocation specific for the amount of people in that household. After the allocation is used the supply will be cut of until the next 24 hours. If we can cut people of from electricity we can also cut them of from water.
Shall we bet that everybody is going to be a lot more careful with their usage?
Although I think some could be given the opportunity to hark about ‘communist controls’ on their water supply with such things.. and maybe efficiency could be tackled first (40% less water could be used in the EU with changes such as recycling kitchen water to the toilet) http://www.rics.org/site/scripts/news_article.aspx?newsID=1543; personally I totally agree!
Although I am not a communist, I believe that without drastic measurements nothing is going to change. Personally I have been thinking about a system whereby shower water should be pumped into the shower head a second time. I mean, how dirty is the water running into the drain when you shower? This way the saving would be 50%.
And it is of course never one thing that should be changed, it is the sum of all the changes that will start to make an impact.
Thanks Mark for your post, and Johan for the discussion
I think it would be a great idea, however, I also believe that some governments do not want to change the lifestyle of their citizens. In addition, economic interests linked with the water supply are still high..
However, from my personal experience, I can tell you that indeed in some areas in Jordan where water is delivered only few days a week, people are very carefull in wasting water and they do not have a daily shower.
@Hussam,
So it proofs that less supply of water will change the way people use that water. On many occasions I showered with half a bucket of water while being on safari. And I was not less clean than showering and using 60 liters.
@Johan,
indeed. But maybe would be more difficult to impose this lifestyle to some Europeans or Americans, also because it is more difficult to raise awareness there than in desertic or semi-arid countries? But indeed, at least slowly, we could start to change things… For instance, when recycling was introduced in our countries, at the beginning it was maybe a bit difficult for some people, some people were complaining, while today for us it is normality to recycle and we feel unconfortable when we go to countries where there isn’t the possibility to recycle and we feel guilty in throwing plastics together with organic and paper… so yes, let’s start to change people’s lifestyle
mm I agree with making water more fairly available as a priority,
but then Im not sure if it would do us many favours using the same government that gets votes to ‘distribute’ out water.. maybe you’ve also come across the story of Fontamara. http://library.thinkquest.org/28490/data/inglese/libri/fontamara.htm
Surely the biggest change we can make without imposing on freedoms is to encourage food to travel less distances and eat less red meat, where a lot more water is used…
@Mark: Basically you mentioned the concept of virtual water:
http://development.thinkaboutit.eu/think3/post/virtual_water_two_videos
But I would go that far, saying that we should eat less red meat. I’d just say that in order to help the countries facing water shortages, better to have water policies that take into consideration the virtual water concept. See also:
http://development.thinkaboutit.eu/think3/post/virtual_water_lets_re-think_the_water_management_policies
I think that eating less red meat would be a good way of improving water equity and cutting unnatural deaths in the Western world as well.
What kind of water policy were you thinking of otherwise?