I come from a generally dry country and the concepts of drought & conserving the water are not new to me.

One of the things that have stunned/upset me ever since I set foot in Canada (both east & west coasts) is watching people washing their cars using a hose and tap water:

For starters, tap water is not cheap. Moreover, one definitely doesn’t need sanitised water to wash their car.

But more importantly, washing cars using a hose at home is very inefficient compared to taking it to an automatic car wash: something which is programmed to make every second of operation and every litre of water count (that’s how they make a margin after all.)

TBH I’m not sure about the real impact this has on our water reserves & if there have been any studies on similar water-inefficiencies but I have yet to watch/read/hear a advertisement, newspaper column or radio talk on this topic: these dry seasons take extra measures as, IMHO, they’re going to stay w/ us for the foreseeable future.

Am I being too sensitive about water shortage b/c of my background? What are your thoughts?

Image from Wikipedia

  • rehydrate5503@lemmy.worldEnglish
    3·
    1 year ago

    Not being overly sensitive at all, and to add to this, perfectly manicured lawns are another big issue.

    I admit I used to be guilty of this and would wash my car sometimes twice a week, using tons of water. However, the last few years that the climate has been getting worse, and each summer there are wild fires and water use restrictions, I have stopped.

    Also, products like optimum no rinse car wash exits and work well, conserving tons of water, so I just use that.

    • bahmanm@lemmy.mlOPEnglish
      2·
      1 year ago

      optimum no rinse car wash

      First time hearing about this - just placed the order on Amazon!

      I take our car to the car wash only 2-3 times a year, to save on water, and as a result most of the times it looks like this 😂

      • rehydrate5503@lemmy.worldEnglish
        2·
        1 year ago

        Haha yeah I practice the French way of car ownership as well, except for winter time when I go through the car wash weekly to get rid of the salt buildup.

        I’ve been using that ONR product for a while and it works great. I recommend going through a basic car wash before first use if your car matches that photo, but after that, doing a quick wash with ONR twice a month is easy.