Alina Siegfried had a long shower yesterday. It was something she had been looking forward to.
For all the profligacy that might have involved, the Wellington woman had earned it. For the past month - the month of March - she's been living on 25 litres of a water a day.
Big deal? Well, it's probably a fair effort. The average Wellingtonian uses about 230 litres in their domestic daily life (the Dunedin City Council estimate is between 180 and 250 litres of water per person each day, not including garden watering).
A 10-minute shower can easily burn through a third of that, with low-flow shower heads pouring out about six litres of water a minute and older-style versions 15 or more. Then there's flushing the toilet (up to 20 litres) and washing hands, putting a load or two of washing through the machine, dishes, cooking, cups of tea. It all adds up.
Ms Siegfried's effort was part of the Water Conservation Challenge, which has been running for a few years now. It was initiated by a Canadian man and coincides with the United Nation's World Water Day, which was March 22.
Ms Siegfried first became involved in the event when working on water issues for a non-governmental organisation in Canada, a country she concedes probably has more to be immediately concerned about when it comes to water conservation. The UN's focus is on urban areas in the developing world.
But New Zealanders need not be complacent, she says.
"I have been making the connection here that our streams and rivers are getting more and more polluted at the moment. The more water that's in there to basically dilute those pollutants the better. And also I make the point that it takes a considerable amount of energy to pump and treat that water and bring it into our homes, so there's really no need to be wasteful with it.
"A lot of our typical Kiwi swimming holes have do-not-swim signs popping up everywhere. There's a lot of algal growth in our rivers."
The likes of the Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment, among others, has made similar points in recent times.
"It is an interesting one, because we are not really, really short of water in New Zealand, but in saying that, people, especially in Wellington, have the misconception that if it is raining then there is plenty of water but of course most of that water is directed straight into stormwater systems and ends up in the harbour."
Unless people take some care with water, local councils must spend large sums on infrastructure to meet demand.
"The other point to be made is that with climate change ramping up the way it is, we are going to see more extreme weather systems. We are going to see more floods, more droughts, more storms coming through and the water supply won't necessarily be consistent," Ms Siegfried says.
There is another, broader issue.
"It is a fundamental value. We are all actually made of water and it is something that's absolutely taken for granted, as are many things in our Western lifestyle. You go and turn on an electric light switch and you know that electricity is going to be there, but you don't ever make the connection of how that came to be. So I guess this could be seen as a model for other things, and an indication of how we take many of our modern luxuries for granted."
Indeed, the quantities of water involved in the industrial processes that provide many of those luxuries are both large and largely unseen.
So how did the challenge go?
No sweat. Ms Siegfried says she's been coming in under 25 litres most days. It turns out that a sponge bath need not use more than about four or five litres, with no compromise on personal hygiene - though she does admit in her blog that she's been resorting to bandanas more often. She has also had to be content to "let it mellow" if it's yellow, rather than flushing every time.
Mankind survived before modern plumbing, Ms Siegfried says.
"It is quite possible to stay healthy and hygienic," she says.
"The most difficult thing has been the amount of time it takes to do things."
There's no room to run the tap while water heats up, so if hot water is required it must be measured and heated first. Doing clothes-washing by hand was "quite a chore".
Those sorts of considerations means Ms Siegfried is not recommending the 25-litre limit as a lifestyle choice. The challenge is a stunt, she says, a way of getting people to think about how they consume.
WATER FACTS
• The production of 1kg of beef requires 16,000 litres of water, although there is a huge variation around this global average.
• To produce one cup of coffee takes 140 litres of water, on average.
• The water footprint of China is about 700 cubic metres per year per capita. Only about 7% of the Chinese water footprint falls outside China.
• Japan, with a footprint of 1150 cubic metres per year per capita, has about 65% of its total water footprint outside the borders of the country.
• The US per capita water footprint is 2500 cubic metres per year.
Source: Water footprint network
ACTING LOCAL
• Check for leaks and get them fixed.
• Put a filled plastic bottle in the toilet cistern to use less water when flushing, or install a dual-flush system.
• Use a small bowl, rather than a full sink when washing vegetables.
• Turn off the tap when brushing teeth.
• Install a low-flow showerhead.
• Insulate hot water pipes.
• Avoid using (or remove) waste disposal units.
• Share baths or have a shower.
• Defrost frozen food in the fridge rather than running water over it.
• Look for a water conservation rating of AAA or higher when buying a washing machine or dishwasher.
Source: Dunedin City Council.
