Editor,
I use less than eight gallons of water per day for all uses inside my home.
I eat only raw plant foods, so I have few dishes to wash. I wash my clothes by hand in my one and only sink or in a large container. In 1999, I disconnected my sink's drainpipe. I use a pail under the sink to catch the wastewater, and I then pour almost two gallons of the waste water directly into the center of my toilet to flush.
In 1999, I also removed the shower faucet and handles. Most people on Earth - past and present - have had no home showers.
I have a purifier for my drinking water to remove most of the chlorine, fluoride and other poisons from the city's water.
I am glad I have no car to wash and no grass to water and mow.
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I have never used a swamp cooler or an air conditioner in my home since I moved in almost 18 years ago. In warm weather, I open the doors and windows for cross-ventilation, and I live naked.
I water only my food garden and my apricot tree.
Albuquerque continually squanders twice - or more - the amount of water that is being replenished in the aquifer - insanely stupid. Water is far more precious than money or high-tech industry like Intel. We borrow the Earth from those who come after us - we must stop stealing and poisoning their water.
The choice that is least bad but still sane is to make sure that we use no more water than is being replenished in the aquifer. Far more sane and responsible would be to consume much less water than is being replenished in order to gradually return the aquifer's water level to what it was centuries ago, before the European invasion.
We all make choices daily every time we turn on faucets - spoiled rotten and selfish stupidity, or wise, fair sustainability?
Don Schrader
Daily Lobo reader
