Blogathon Vancouver 2008: Living Water Smart
byIt’s pretty remarkable that now that the rain has started to fall, we’re not out in the tent somewhere as that’s the way things usually go with us and summer rain.
This year, a piddly 0.2 mm on July 3 and the same amount two days later means we’re out of the running for the driest July on record. Not bad, though, considering the normal rainfall in July is about 40 mm. [VancouverSun]
With the lack of rain comes the elevated forest fire danger and along with that comes a single lightning bolt or careless person and our Province’s forests burn.
Aside from the risk of fire, it’s also worthy to be aware of smart water consumption as levels plummet during these arid times. The Province has developed some guidelines and reading materials that can help British Columbians live water smart.
From protecting our drinking water to learning how to do business in a more sustainable way in terms of water consumption, this issue can often be overlooked by so many of us that live around so much water all the time. You can take a quick survey to find out just how water smart you are.
It turns out my household’s “water footprint” is 93,214 litres per person, per year. Seeing as how we don’t have a lawn to water or a car to wash, I thought were were doing pretty good but that number still scares me.
The idea of being conscious of our water usage and decisions should be one that we carry with us year-round. You can get more tips on the Living Water Smart website, and find out why drinking bottled water is far less eco-friendly than having a glass from the tap.
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Our footprint is around 70K litres pp pa. It really does sound like too much for a single person to use!
Up by Cleveland Dam are these signs indicating where the watersheds are, and reminding us how precious and fortunate we are to live within hands’ reach of fresh flowing water.
I recently wrote about the need to re-think our water consumption patters (“Governing water, governing ourselves”) on my blog, and it’s true, living water smart would be SO much more ecologically minded, but no – people still think they have ALL that water (and they don’t)