What is the best way to save water?

Question

Austrailia is so dry and it is important to make sure we are not wasteing any water does anyone have any tips?

Answer 1

The best way for you to save water in long run is to buy water saving fixtures for all faucets in the house.By using these certain water saving fixtures you can dramatically cut back on your water bill.If you are to water outside for plants or crops a slow drip irrigation system can work wonders.They look like black water hoses.These are just a couple ideas...Hopefully people will soon realize it is a precious and valuable commodity...Tom Science 4

Answer 2

Water is the main resource in our day to day life. Water is formed by a natural process of formation of hydrogen and oxygen by a chemical method. Its a GOD gift.
Water can also be wasted by making it dirty and contaminated. Water gets contaminated because letting of chemicals from industries to water. Having bath in water and the second reason is that by using termendous water for producing electricity.
We all know that Australia is a highly developed country which needs electricity to for the production of electricity but if we use electricity at low power then water would not be wasted.

Do's and Dont's
1. Do not use water on high.
2. Don't waste electricity.
3. Don't keep the tap open
4. Make use of salty water from the seas and oceans and purify it and then drink.
5. Plant trees so that you can get rains.
If you follow these steps then i hopefully think that water can be preserved.

Answer 3

If its yellow its mellow. If its brown flush it down.

More efficient washing machines. Front loaders use 1/4 the water that a taop loader uses.

Don't fill the pool. you expose a large surface area to evaporation.

"Navy Showers" On naval vessels the shower has a hand held sprayer you have to hold a button to get water. (similar to a sink sprayer excetp the taps doesn't run when you aren't holding the button)
Get wet... soap, rinse. Takes less than 5 gallons. A shower with the water running the whole time uses over 15 gallons.

Answer 4

Install low-flow toilets and shower heads. Don't let the water run while shaving, washing your face, or brushing your teeth. Store drinking water in the refrigerator rather than letting the tap run to get a cool glass of water. Fully load automatic dishwashers; they use the same amount of water no matter how much is in them.
Use a brush and bowl full of water to wash vegetables. Thaw frozen food in your refrigerator, not under running water. Cook vegetables with a minimum amount of water and save cooking water for soup stock.
Fix leaky plumbing fixtures, faucets and appliances in the house.
Install aerators on every faucet. This could save you as much as 1 gallon every minute you use them.

Answer 5

bend the ball valve in the toilet so that it only fills up half way,have the water from the sink run into the toilet system (with a connected pipe)so that after you wash your hands it can flush the toilet
use the house water for irrigation

and on a bigger scale

WATERHARVESTING

the natural way of nature is to evaporate moisture for clouds and this gets blown to places with less water any way ,what obstruct the clouds from getting to deserts ,tend to be mountains that are in the way,
but generally speaking ,the normal weather patterns spread rain evenly over the planet to balance out the temperatures and humidity.

As far as catching rain is concerned ,we do this all the time ,and have done so already since Babylonian times,and is a part of the more advanced Agriculture,that existed with the Egyptians,Central ,and south American indigenous peoples,and many others ,today we call this water harvesting.

In Permaculture the rule is to harvest water to the point of Zero runoff.
this means that all of the rain that falls on an area is absorbed by the terrain and not a drop leaves it.

by building dams,ponds or swales, with interconecting ditches,
if there are enough of these ;the places ,where before the rain water ran over the ground into the rivers and on to the sea ,(in a matter of hours or days),It now runs into absorbant dams or swales and saturates the ground and eventually reaches subteranean water deposits ,taking many months to do so.
Or it fills up ponds that can be used for Aquaculture.
And so a convex situation that repels water is transformed in a concave ,absorbant one and turning the area in to a sponge.

in Spain and Portugal ,which still display many examples of the conquering Moorish influence,One can find many remnants of Waterharvesting,such as aquaducts and tanks underneath the patios ,which collect the rain water from the roofs ,to be used in dryer times.

in Arabia ,on a large scale ,land has been shaped to catch and lead,rain water into sandy areas or to agricultural lands.sand is almost as good as dams because it absorbs water and holds it.

to find out more about Water harvesting I recomend:
the designers manual by Bil Mollison,which cost about 40 dollars.
and is the best all round book you can get.(tagiari publishing, [e-mail])

Permaculture means permanent agriculture
a concept put forward by Bill Mollisson in the 60`s
which is a complete hand book for environmental design.
for those who seek an ambiotic relationship with our planet
With practical solutions for energy systems ,infratructure ,housing,
animal shelter ,water systems and sustainable agricultural practises.
With the world and it`s history as it`s source
From the chinampas of Mexico to the teraced gardens of the Andes.
From the dessert whadis to the steppes of Russia.
Covering all climatic conditions temporal, dessert, humid and dry tropics.
with chapters on soil ,Water harvesting and land design,
Earth working ,Spirals in nature,Trees and water ,utilising energy flows,
Strategy for an alternative nation Source(s) some other writers that are on the internet are
david Holmgren
Larry Santoyo
Kirk Hanson

Masanobu Fukuaka has written ,
One-Straw Revolution
The Road Back to Nature
The Natural Way of Farming
http://www.context.org/iclib/ic14/fukuok...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/masanobu_fu...

Simon Henderson
and Bill Molisson.

a representitive of the concept in USA is
Dan Hemenway at [e-mail]
[e-mail]
http://barkingfrogspc.tripod.com/frames....
http://csf.colorado.edu/perma/ypc_catalo...

I am a permaculture consultant for the department of Ecology for the regional government of Guerrero in Mexico

i got a yahoo 360 which has some stuff in English as well as this spaces
http://spaces.msn.com/byderule

Answer 6

yup, i used to live up in northern Canada. While water is abundant up there, there are not many places that are on city water lines. So water is shipped in and held in tanks, usually in the basement. I ran out of water a few times, so I came up with some common sense rules (lots of these are community rules, and I don't take credit for them, just passing them along).

Don't flush your toilet so often. The rule up north: if its yellow, let it mellow, if its brown, flush it down. Also to go along with this (as most are on septic tanks), don't put toilet paper down the toilet unless it too is brown.

Don't run the tap when u are brushing your teeth, use a cup.

Wash dishes in a bucket (a square one works good) in the sink. Have another bucket of hot water for rinsing dishes.

The water you use for rinsing dishes is ok to use for watering animals. They don't mind, so long as it doesn't have soap in it.

Don't bother with watering the lawn... who really cares if its not spring green all 12 months? Besides, if you don't water it, it doesn't need to be cut so often.

Share baths. Actually, having a quick shower will actually save water. The youngsters liked having their baths together.

Keep a jug of water in the fridge. You won't have to "run the tap" to get a cool glass, its instant!

Recyle water. Like for the animals noted above. But also for watering plants, washing the floor (that water does not have to be hot).

Plant trees and shrubs. They will hold water in the soil and the more plants, the more the water system is contained.

How often do you have to take a shower? Do you really need one every day? I doubt it unless you work on a farm every day.

Don't cut back on the water you need to drink. It doesn't really amount to that much and you really do need to drink.

There ya go!

Answer 7

I saw lots of good ideas here already. Reuse of grey water is good. Xeriscaping is good - outdoor use of attractive and useful native trees, plants & grasses. Runoff cachment dams and caching rainwater from the roof for household use is good.

Answer 8

Plan a green bathroom renovation.
Shorten your shower.
Plant a drought-tolerant garden.

Answer 9

Ways to save water :
-watershed management.
-rainwater harvesting
-using small diameter pipes
-using water sensibly

Answer 10

Take shower instead of bath,

get a environmentally friend toilet, it flash with lesser water

stop washing your car, even it cover with mud.

recycle the water... save water from the washing machine for flashing toilet...