cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ml/post/3972223

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

  • Sprokes@lemmy.ml
    5·
    1 year ago

    I am also very sensitive about water and I used get angry even when seeing people on television washing their teeth while letting the water running. Right now I also get angry watching people taking a bath, taking a shower and letting the water running.

    People are used to always have water and it is cheap so they don’t care. I even saw someone on Reddit saying that you don’t need to turn off water in the shower when you soap because it costs almost nothing.

    • oʍʇǝuoǝnu@lemmy.ca
      72·
      1 year ago

      I even saw someone on Reddit saying that you don’t need to turn off water in the shower when you soap because it costs almost nothing.

      Are out saying that you turn the water on and off multiple times during your shower? Like when you wash your hair, you turn the water off to shampoo then turn it back on to rinse?

      • Doombot1@beehaw.orgEnglish
        51·
        1 year ago

        Yeah, what…? My shower uses ~2.5 gallons per minute, and at a cost of $2.55/thousand gallons where I live, that’s a total of ~$0.003 (a third of a cent) to turn it off for 30 seconds while I soap

      • bahmanm@lemmy.mlOPEnglish
        2·
        1 year ago

        I can’t tell if this is a genuine question or sarcasm 🤷‍♂️

        • nicktron@kbin.social
          2·
          1 year ago

          It’s a genuine question. I live in Canada and before I visited abroad (SE Asia) I had never seen those styles of shower water heaters, nor did it ever cross my mind to turn off the water while soaping up.

      • Sprokes@lemmy.ml
        2·
        1 year ago

        Yes I do that and in my case I use very little for showers, around 6l/shower max. It is not about the cost but there are some cities around where they don’t have tap water this summer. There weren’t any real actions that were taken to avoid that situation.