Introduction

“There is a water crisis today. But the crisis is not about having too little water to satisfy our needs. It is a crisis of managing water so badly that billions of people – and the environment – suffer badly.”  (World Water council, 2014)

In the UAE the total indoor usage is356.5 liters.(EAA & RTI 2009) Each dropis important because water is the reason we flourish and for sustainable growth for future generations. So there is a huge challenge to reduce water in the whole world.

I chose to save water in showers and baths for several reasons. The main reason is the highest water wastage happens indoors and showers consume around 18%(Conserve Water, 2013). Hence, I hope to start with myself to reduce the use of water when showering and find diverse ways that could help and encourage my community and I to save water while taking baths. We need to reconsider how we use and value water.

Experiment

The first experiment will be applied as what I do on a usual day, as I do not know any information about the shower wasteful means without any solutions. This experiment started on Monday 12^thMay 2014 till Sunday 18^thMay 2014. While, the Second experiment I will find solution to reduce shower wasteful. This experiment started on Monday 19^thMay 2014 till Monday first of June 2014.

Method

If you want accurate data you must follow specific steps, so for that I put together a simple plan to go throughfor the whole period.

First Experiment

• Do research to know the gallons of wastage when taking a shower or bath
• Create a table to calculate the time spent in the shower
• Print and hang up the table near a bathroom to remind and encourage me to continue this trial period.
• Put the timer inside the bathroom.
• Click on timer when I finished removing my clothes
• When you have finished shut down the timer directly and record time in the table.

Second Experiment

Use same of first experiment method and application of these solutions to reach my goals to save water in showers.

• Do research to know the adequate time to take shower
• Shower in less than five minutes
• Shower rather than take a bath
• Use regular shower, not high power shower (South staffs water, 2014)
• Set the alarm at 4 minutes to stop shower in this time.
• Put a pail in the shower until water become warm and use this water that I catch to cleaning or watering plants

Data

First Experiment

Second Experiment

Analyses

The chartsshows the change in the use of water in showers and bathsover the period from 12 May 2014 to1June 2014 and I can analyses it to know the measurement of water wastage in my showers.

In the end of the first week I wasted nearly of 417.15 gallons.Unfortunately, that mean I was contribution and reason of the lack of access safe water for the millions of people.

As can be seen from the first chart is the water wastage rocketed to 80.9 gallons on Tuesday, this is because take a shower in high flow around 8.98 minutes thatconsume 5 gallons /per minutes. Beside take full bath that consume 36 gallons. (Johns River Water Management District, 2004)

On Thursday the graph shows a plummet in the gallonsof water usage in showers that reach to approximately 42gallons. There is major role to have less gallons in this day that I take two showers rather than take a bath that consume in high flow 5 gallons /per Min and in low flow 2.5 gallons /per Min.

On the other hand, when I implemented solution I wasted 329 gallons for two weeks only. While I squandering 154 gallons for only one week that show a huge difference from Waste per week.As a figure shows that I spend less water in the second week a difference of 20 gallons

On Saturday 24 of May is the highest usage of water by around 34 gallons, because I did not commitment on time and don’t run alarm. While, on Wednesday 21 of May its lower because before I take shower I put in mind to spend less time in shower. Moreover, I recognize that when I take shower before go to the college in the last time that force me to use less time in shower to be in time in the class.

 Discussion

It was a big challenge for me to monitor my shower time;I was succeeded to fill the whole tables during the period. But I expect greater results rather than what I achieve it. For example, I could not obligation on 4 minutes at shower I think because long time shower become habit and I think it’s difficult to change it in small period. So I will continue in this challenge to monitor my shower time and take maximum 5 minutes.

Moreover, I did not find any interaction of my family except my mother because she always advises us to use less water and preserve what God gave us. While, the other they do not find a difference ifI provision of one liters of water. For example I invite my brother to do the experiment together but he was apologized pretext the lack of time. Because did find any welcoming for my challenge from my family. I insisted to do it and share the result with them besides to give them some facts about water as I studied in the class and what could happen if we continued to consumption the same amount of water.

I suggest doingawareness campaign in educational institutions because if weconvinced about the risks of waste we can affect our families in easy way. Also, I will recommendation my classmates on their challenge and try to make difference in our community.

If I will repeat the experiment I will involve my nephew and nieces because they ask me about table of measurements and they interacted with me when I told them story that carry the importance of water that let them go to share it with their parent that mean they are sensitive category that is easy to influence them in positive way.

Conclusion

Finally, if all of us start with his own to think and apply to maintain even a drop of water and believe that this drop could survivesomeone the world will not suffer from thirst. Besides, we must believe and persistence that we can change our habits if its generate negative impact to the world.

Reference

EAA & RTI (2009) Demand-Side Management for Electricity and Water Use in Abu Dhabi, June 2009.

Conserve Water. (2013). Showers and Baths. Retrieved May 16, 2014, from Conserve Water: http://www.conservewater.utah.gov/IndoorUse/Bathroom/

Johns River Water Management District. (2004, May). Home Water Use Survey. Retrieved May 24, 2014, from Lake County: http://www.lakecountyfl.gov/pdfs/conservation_compliance/family_water_survey.pdf

South staffs water. (2014). water use in your home. Retrieved May 31, 2014, from South staffs water: http://www.south-staffs-water.co.uk/publications/your_home/WaterUseHome.pdf

World Water council. (2014). World Water Vision . Retrieved May 16, 2014, from World Water council: http://www.worldwatercouncil.org/library/archives/water-crisis/