General Chat

Our Aussie members will have a very good idea what I am talking about, as many parts of Australia have been without significant rain for over 8 years.

Most of our potable water comes from rain and snow, some from aquifers underground.

We had a dry-ish summer last year, very little snow (about 30% of normal) over the winter, and very little rain since April ......... all combined with much warmer than usual temperatures. The snow packs in the mountains had all completely melted before the end of March, much earlier than usual.

The coming winter is forecast to be dryer and warmer than usual, and the same is expected for next spring and summer.

Part of it is due to a very large El Nino, but climate change is also involved.


We're still in Stage 3 watering restrictions here, while other areas in the province and other parts of Canada are in Stage 4.

Stage 3 means absolutely no watering of lawns, hand watering (no sprinklers) only of trees, shrubs, veggie and flower gardens, and then only once a week unless you are using so-called grey water. Commercial gardens and nurseries can still water their crops.

Stage 4 means absolutely no watering by anyone, private or commercial, except by using grey water. There are also restrictions on household use of water.

Grey water is what you usually let run down the drain ......... from washing veggies and fruit, washing-up water, bath and shower water, etc. One does have to be very careful about using washing up and bath water ......... detergents and soaps can contain harmful chemicals.

We can fill 1 or 2 buckets a day from just the water run to either get hot water or cold water from the kitchen tap or to wash veggies and fruit ......... quite amazing!

I fill the buckets, OH very carefully carries them outside and waters plants that are important to us ......... the kiwi vine with its developing fruit, the ever-bearing strawberries, the raspberries and tayberries, the leeks, and the young cherry tree that the city planted on the outside boulevard 2 years ago. Some get water every day, others just once or twice a week.

OH dug up the potatoes last week ........ about 25 lbs of white and about 10 lbs of blues. Not bad considering that he had given them very little water.

We're all learning to turn off the tap while cleaning our teeth instead of letting the water run, to use the California mantra for the toilet "if it's yellow, let it mellow. If it's brown flush it down", to take showers instead of baths and to turn the shower off while lathering the shampoo or soap then turning it on again. Plus a lot of people are beginning to take fewer showers ......... once every 2 or 3 days instead of every day or even twice a day.


It seems as though there is no end to the drought .........

...... and there are over 200 forest fires burning in the province, with over $200 million spent so far on fighting them, and getting close to 100 homes and buildings destroyed. 30 homes were destroyed over this past weekend in one little community alone ............ in a fire that was probably started by someone throwing a cigarette butt out of their car.and spread literally like wildfire :-(

It's quite an experience!

We had a bad drought in 1976 when the government brought in the "Drought Act"

As soon as the act came in, South Wales households had they water supply switched off between 7pm and 8am but this was later extended to all afternoon, evening and night.

This would have been OK if we'd had a water tank but all our cold water was mains fed.

The bath was continually filled with water for the toilet, pans of water sat around the kitchen.

The boating lake stank to high heavens, unwashed cars became the fashion and we were encouraged to "bath with a friend".

I always feel such a fraud telling my friends in Namibia that we are under drought conditions again.

On my first day there I was very aware that it was a dry country and I didn't waste a drop but they carried on in just the way we do at home because their drought is constant, they are a desert country, and they have adapted to it.

we're not allowed to wash cars ............. except for "safety", meaning the windshield and lights.

Commercial car washes can operate under Stage 3 (they don't use as much water as a person using a hose pipe), but not in Stage 4.


It is amazing how much water we waste ....................

I was raised to make tea using freshly drawn water ........... that meant emptying the kettle of any left over water, running the tap for 10-20 seconds to get "fresh" water, then filling the kettle.

Repeated over and over again during the day and evening.

I was raised to run the cold tap for up to a minute to get "really cold water" to drink


etc etc etc

I lived with a bucket lavatory until I was ten and then we had cesspits until 1986 so I was trained to wait until I was out and not to pull the chain at home until I really had to.

When the South of England is on hosepipe ban we, generally, are not, because we are supplied by the Portsmouth Water Company who store all their water in aquifers while Southern Water uses reservoirs.

We are a load of wasters really! We don't appreciate what we have so that cutting back comes hard but we should all make more effort regardless of droughts etc

O.h. wants to finally have central heating installed but I don't think he realises how much higher the gas bill will be, from us just using a gas fire, altho he will save on the immersion heater cost. Either that or he will be so miserly that central heating won't make much difference to our comfort.

You could happily have some of our rain Sylvia, we have more than enough altho we have had some nice days this summer!

Lizxx

We lived in Melbourne for a while. Sydney people laugh and say it rains in Melbourne all the time....... oh no it doesn't.

The water from the washing machine was pumped onto the lawn... where the clothesline was. I never had soapy ankles, just wet feet! I kept a basin in the kitchen sink, washed fruit & veg over the basin, and threw the water in the garden. We weren't supposed to use a hose, but it was impossible to water hanging baskets using a bucket.. I used a hose with a turnoff button (if I'd used a bucket I would have spilled most of it). We also put a couple of buckets in the shower, rather than water running down the drain, we used it on the garden.

We got rid of our front lawn ~ who uses it anyway? Planted lots of Aussie native plants that don't need lots of water (some of them died anyway).


My brother lived way out bush for years......... his son was three years old before he heard the sound of rain on the roof! Their once lovely garden was a dustbowl.

Here in the subtropics we get downpours in spring... usually..... but three years ago was very dry.

As they say............. don't be a water Wally!

I lived in the Arabian Gulf for a long time. It rains two or three times each year summer highs way over 50C. No cold beer :-( No forest fires , no forests.

Judging by the personal odours emanating from a number of hardy fellow bus passengers, I'd say they are very cautious about the amount of carbolic & tap water they use. :-|

forgot to say.......... toilets in Oz are dual flush (half or full), and most of the showers have a water saving nozzle. We upgraded two bathrooms when we moved in 8 years ago, a couple of years ago there was a man going around fitting new shower heads if you wanted them, free of charge (from the Government, so not exactly free).

LS ............

all new toilets fitted here, either in renos or new builds, have to be dual flush, and we've had water saving nozzles for showers of various kinds since about 1980. They get more and more efficient every year.

I'm afraid that we have neither ........... so we go with the "if it's yellow ........", and short showers.



We lived in Melbourne in 1975-76 ................ they didn't have any water saving features in the small apartment block where we lived.

It had been built on speck about 1970, but the builder put it onto a regular sized block in the middle of a residential area, and the neighbours objected so much that he could not rent it ...... so he rented it to LaTrobe University for letting to senior married undergrads, staff and faculty and visiting faculty .................. there were only 8 apartments.