Earth Day 2016: water conservation tips

There’s no better day than Earth Day to take steps toward a more positive global impact. No drastic, sweeping changes are necessary to start reducing waste production—it can be something as simple as working to conserve water.

When looking at conserving water, there are three relatively easy steps Dr. Steve Murphree of Belmont’s biology department says each student can make.

“Students can get a shower head that you can turn off when you’re shampooing in the shower—you can buy those fairly easily these days, and they’re inexpensive,” said Murphree.

Murphree said another small fix that goes a long way is turning off water when brushing teeth. While it may seem trivial, water is wasted each time it is left running.

His final suggestion was to connect rain barrels to down spouts.

“You can use that water to water in the garden, and if they’re made right, they will not allow mosquitos to breed inside of them,” said Murphree.

Senior Alaina Mullins had a similar suggestion for water conservation.

“We made fun of my brother at first because he would put a bucket over the drain when he showered and any extra water that got caught in it he would use for something else.” said Mullins. “But, it’s honestly a good idea.”

Other practical ideas include using left over ice from beverages or dropped on the floor to water plants, cooking food in a minimal amount of water, defrosting food in the refrigerator rather than under running water and refraining from leaving water running while hand washing dishes.

With only three percent of all global water being fresh, and only one percent of fresh water being drinkable, water conservation is valuable.

“If you don’t start caring about it when you’re younger, it’s going to be really easy to be indifferent towards it when you’re older,” said Mullins. “The population keeps growing and we need to be even more weary of our impact.”

This article was written by Ragan Clark.