[Vision2020] Saving water

[Ralph Nielsen]

Installing a low-flush toilet will no doubt help save water but water  
is wasted in other ways.

Bathtubs waste a lot of water, showers can use less. The Good  
Samaritan is taking out the tubs and replacing them with showers  
instead. Tubs are also very awkward to get in and out of, as well as  
being positively dangerous to slip and fall in. Many people have  
broken limbs in slippery tubs. Some have died as a result.

Showers, unfortunately, do not always save as much water as they  
should. In practically all of Europe and much of Canada they have  
hand-held shower heads on a flexible cable, so you can use less water  
and direct it to all parts of your body. You can also control the  
volume of the shower. You can even wash just your feet without taking  
your clothes off. (I have one in my house.)

Another water-waster in this country are showers where you can't  
control the volume of water. In the Hilton Garden Hotel in Airway  
Heights, Spokane, where I have stayed several times, they have a huge  
investment in expensive Toto brand toilets, which use very little  
water and are very quiet. (They come from Japan, not Kansas.) But  
this saving is offset by the showers, which can run full-blast only,  
thus wasting not only precious Rathdrum aquifer water but also the  
electricity or gas to heat it.

Ralph Nielsen