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Water Conservation Is Important EVERY Day!
WATER CONSERVATION IS EVERYONE’S BUSINESS. You may be surprised to learn how much water is wasted on a daily basis. There are many things we can do to conserve our precious water supplies. Here are 10 things we can do as consumers that save the most.
- Water your lawn only when it really needs it. Step on your grass. If it springs back when you lift your foot, it doesn't need water, so set your sprinklers for more days in between watering.
Saves 750-1,500 gallonsper month.
- Fix leaky faucets and plumbing joints.
Saves 20 gallons per day for every leak stopped.
- Don't run the hose while washing your car. Use a bucket of water and a quick hose rinse at the end. Saves 150 gallons each time. For a two-car family that's up to 1,200 gallons a month.
- Install water-saving shower heads or flow restrictors.
Saves 500 to 800 gallons per month.
- Run only full loads in the washing machine and dishwasher.
Saves 300 to 800 gallons per month.
- Shorten your showers. Even a one or two minute reduction can save up to 700 gallons per month.
- Use a broom instead of a hose to clean driveways and sidewalks.
Saves 150 gallons or more each time, at once a week, that's more than 600 gallons a month.
- Don't use your toilet as an ashtray or wastebasket.
Saves 400 to 600 gallons per month.
- Capture tap water. While you wait for hot water to come down the pipes, catch the flow in a watering can to use later on house plants or your garden.
Saves 200 to 300 gallons per month.
- Don't water the sidewalks, driveway or gutter. Adjust your sprinklers so that water lands on your lawn or garden where it belongs--and only there.
Saves 500 gallons per month.
Conserving Beyond Our Own Backyards
The Great Lakes are shrinking. Upstate New York’s reservoirs have dropped to record lows. Florida doesn’t have nearly enough water for its expected population boom. And in the West, the Sierra Nevada snow pack is melting faster each year.
For the average American, fresh and affordable water has always been available at the turn of the tap. It’s time, though, for Americans to start thinking more about where their water comes from and how they choose to use – or abuse – it.
Projections indicate that in the next five years, at least 36 states will face water shortages for a number of reasons, including rising temperatures, population growth, drought, waste and excess. In order to keep the tap flowing, Americans are going to have to wake up to conservation and recycling efforts.
The US uses roughly 148 trillion gallons of water yearly for residential, commercial, agricultural, manufacturing and other miscellaneous uses. That translates to almost 500,000 gallons per person. Whatever the use, water is wasted everywhere.
Today’s water professionals face the difficult challenge of providing a clean water supply for all Americans for many years to come. And while technology continues to offer solutions like desalination, the price tags associated with such projects are often staggering. Conservation and recycling continue to be the most cost effective solution. There is an immediate need to reduce water waste and increase water efficiency.
The Merchantville-Pennsauken Water Commission is currently partnering with Maple Shade in a greywater reuse project to irrigate the Pennsauken Country Club. And while efforts such as this will prove to be invaluable to preserving our freshwater supply in the future, American households need to make conservation and recycling of water a priority in their everyday lives as well.
The MPWC’s seasonal conservation plan provides our customers with some basic guidelines - the bare minimum necessary to have an impact on the future water demands of our community. As we move toward a more water efficient future, we urge our customers to take a greater interest in personal conservation efforts. We urge you to consider the cost and value of sustaining our most precious natural resource. Be conscious of the water you are using daily and think more about how you could use less.
As long as people are not facing water scarcity or mandatory restrictions, they tend to take this resource for granted, or worse, they don’t think about it at all. It’s time to change that thinking because Americans, and even our own community, could find itself in a water crisis if we don’t begin to practice conservation on a new level - conservation practices that will not only benefit ourselves, but our children and grandchildren, as well.
Conservation and recycling efforts for the future of our community will take center stage at the MPWC in the coming years. We encourage our commercial users to consider reuse as an alternative. We want to entice our residential users to be more conscious of their water use at home. Water conservation doesn’t have to be a inconvenience, it can be a fun and educational project for the entire family.
In the coming months, we look forward to providing our customers with new tips on how you can conserve and recycle. We encourage you to educate yourselves with regard to water conservation efforts in your communities, as well as around the country. Be “Water Wise”!
All of us at the Merchantville-Pennsauken Water Commission thank you for your current conservation and recycling efforts and look forward to working with you to better the future for all of us!
If you have any questions, concerns or comments, feel free to contact me at the MPWC main office during regular business hours.
Sincerely,
Brandy Eisenmann
Director of Customer Services
If we all do a little... we can save a lot!
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