Cool water habits

One of the most important resources in the Planet, perhaps the most important, is water. Water covers most of the Earth’s surface, it regulates its temperature and sustains a big portion of its biodiversity. And that is just saltwater. Humans need freshwater for other purposes. We use water to clean our clothes, to do the dishes, to wash our cars, to keep our hygiene, to make paper as well as countless other products, to produce food and to remain hydrated. Without water, there would be no life on Earth, however, Humanity is burning through it like a wildfire through a dry forest. Water is running out. If we do not find a way to reduce our water consumption or to clean it after we use it to be able to use it again, Humanity’s days are numbered.

The Blue planet. We gave that name to the Earth because 75% of its surface is covered by water, however 97.5% of it is saltwater and less than 1% of it is available for our consumption. Even then, humans use around 10 billion tons of water on a daily basis. Our water consumption is not limited to drinking and washing but also in every product we use. Agriculture alone can use up to 90% of a region’s water supply. 1 kilogram of beef needs 15,400 liters of water to be produced because the cow it comes from need to drink water and eat food that requires water to grow. Other things such as chocolate or paper also need water to be made. We consume water with basically every product we buy. We need to shorten our daily consumption, not just of the water we use for cleaning our stuff, but of the products we buy as well. Taking care of our water supply is only the first step.

People all around the world know this and are acting upon it. Some of the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDG’s) are to achieve responsible consumption and production, to provide clean water and sanitation, to save life below water and to combat climate change. Every day, there are more people using metal straws, o joining movements like meatless Monday to help save the planet by reducing their consumption of unnecessary goods; Bill Gates has a machine that extracts drinkable water from sewer sludge; kids are being taught that resources are finite at school. We need to continue our efforts if er are to survive, especially for us Mexicans.

Mexico has one of the most critical situations in terms of water. It is estimated that by 2025, Mexico City will have run completely out of freshwater. Forty per cent of the water produced in the metropolitan area is wasted and only seven per cent of the water we use is treated to be reused. Some people don’t have access to any freshwater that is safe to use and yet, in some zones, there are floods that reach 1.1 meters of water because of the rain and our faulty drainage system. Some communities are already implementing ways to solve both problems using rain-capturing systems; others look for ways to reduce our water consumption, and even if that will only buy us some time before our water supply runs out, we need to start doing it until we find another viable solution for water shortage. Unfortunately, the government has not done much to solve this problem. In Mexico, the people maintain the people.

Experts advice for Mexicans to use only 50 liters of water per day. In average, every Mexican uses 300 liters daily. In the shower, 10 minutes uses around 200 liters. Some people take showers for one hour. We believe, this average is strongly influenced by the privileged portion of the population that are able to take warm showers because they enjoy the warmth and therefore, take longer showers. Some of them are conscious of the World’s water shortage if not of its magnitude, so they try to take shorter showers but they only reduce their time to 10 to 15 minutes which is better but still unacceptable. If people had a system that recycled all water so that instead of consuming 200 liters of water every ten minutes in the shower, they could use the same fifty liters that would later be available for reusing. However, designing, engineering, building and implementing this kind of system into every house in the city, would take an enormous amount of time and work. In the meantime, we must look for other solutions to reduce our water consumption to last long enough for such a system to be implemented. That is why we want to launch the Cool shower challenge. 

If people showered with cold water, they would probably take less time and use less water, because the cold would be uncomfortable for them and they would want to finish earlier. People who can take long, warm showers are people that can pay for them; people that have access to information and spen a lot of time on social media. We want to diffuse this challenge, in which you record yourself before and after going in to the shower (no nudity can be shown) with a timer to show you took little time to take your shower and you share that video challenging other people to do the same, sort of like the ice-bucket challenge. By diffusing this challenge through social-media, we help people use less water and grow a conscience. Colder showers would also save energy that is used heating the water and brings health benefits. But first, we need an audience. We will create an Instagram account called “Trashureplanet” to start creating environmental awareness and gather followers. Once we reach 300 followers, we will launch our challenge.

This line of action is aimed at people all over the country. We hope it ends up reaching people all around the world but we are focusing on Mexico for the moment, however, there is another limitation to keep in mind. Most Mexicans have no choice other than to take cold showers because they cannot pay for hot water. It is likely that these Mexicans have no social media since they probably do not have smartphones to begin with. Because of this, our project is aimed at privileged Mexicans but this is not an issue, since it is privileged Mexicans who take long, warm showers; who use more water; who raise the average of water consumed all the way up to 300 liters per day per Mexican. By reducing our water consumption, Mexico City will take longer than expected to run out of water, hopefully enough to create a water-recycling system or implement an already-existing one (such as Bill Gates’ machine) that allows us to use as much water as we want without fear of it ever running out.

Water is crucial for the Earth and Humanity’s survival and yet we are spending it in an unacceptable fashion, not just in our direct consumption but in our indirect one as well. We need to look for solutions now, if we are to survive as a species. Some of the people that spend the biggest amounts of water, are the privileged parts of the population that can afford to have more water and take longer showers. The Cool shower challenge will force people to take shorter showers willingly to spend less water and buy us more time until we find a way that cuts our water waste and become sustainable.

Follow @trashureplanet on Instagram.

References

EPA (no date) Reducing and Reusing basics Retrieved from: https://www.epa.gov/recycle/reducing-and-reusing-basics#main-content

EPA (no date) Reducing and Reusing basics Retrieved from: https://www.epa.gov/recycle/reducing-and-reusing-basics#main-content

Caudron A. (2018) Histoire Géographie 1st ed. France: La Providence.

EPA (no date) Reducing wasted food at home Retrieved from: https://www.epa.gov/recycle/reducing-wasted-food-home

Cactus Films (Fernanda Martínez) (2017 february 8) H2O-MX m4a retrieved from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iIyhFVSn8A4