Sunday Evening

I snacked by way through lunch, drank a Dr. Pepper and the juice that I made for breakfast, so my water usage was reduced.

Dinner was hamburgers cooked on the grill.  We used 1/4 C. water for food prep, and 1 gallon to do dishes afterward.

I took a bath last night and washed my hair.  The bath used 1-1/2 gal, and 3 cups for my hair (shampoo and conditioner).

So here are my Sunday results:

Brushing my teeth:  1-1/2 C  = .0935 g.
Flushing the toilet:  2-2/3 g
Washing and bathing:  1.8125 g.
Food Prep:  .625 g
Washing Dishes: 2 g.
Drinking: 1 C. = .0625 g
Laundry = 13-20 g.

Sunday's Total is 27.2635 g.  This assumes the maximum estimated amount for the laundry.  The average for the two days was 13.63 gallons.  I could have reduced that by not doing the laundry, but hey, you have to wash your clothes sometime.

My point in this study is this:  according to statistics, the people in the city in which I live are using approximately 24.9 million gallons a day in this heat and drought.  There are approximately 98,000 people in this city.  That averages out to 245 gallons a day per person.  Some of that water is used by businesses and industry, but even if that accounts for half, it is still about 125 gallons of water per person per day.  That is a lot of water!

The future is uncertain.  We don't know when it will rain or how much.  Everything is so dry here and if we wait to conserve water until the situation is critical we have waited too long.  My concern is with everything so dry and just ripe for fire, will we have enough water in the future to put the fires out?  I hope that we get rain soon, but until then it is my opinion that we need to begin conserving and/or recycling water now.