Domestic Water Use & Conservation Soil 516: Assignment 2 • 22 November 2015 • PJ Bell
Introduction Domestic water conservation is a critically important topic for municipal governments, policy makers, and citizens who are concerned with water security. In the Vancouver context, this is especially true in light of the drought and resulting water restrictions that impacted the Lower Mainland this past summer. This was not an isolated incident, nor was it unique provincially, nationally, or globally. As climate change progresses and the human population continues to increase, issues of water security will become both more common and more significant in the future. In this report, I compare my average daily domestic water consumption to that of residents of Regina, Saskatchewan. I chose to examine Regina because I wanted to familiarize myself with water issues in my hometown while providing perspective from outside the Lower Mainland. Additionally, all residences in Regina have water meters, which is a stark contrast to Vancouver and much of the Greater Vancouver Regional District. This report will also examine water conservation strategies in Regina before exploring opportunities for conservation in my own life.
consumption is shown in Figure 1, which indicates that I consumed an average of 174.07 litres per day. A variety of recording methods were utilized, depending on the activity type; these methods are described below Table 1. Figure 2 shows each activity’s proportion of the total daily water use, with showering and laundry taking up the largest share (64.7% between the two activities). The first half of my week proceeded as usual and could be described as routine. However, it should be noted that from Thursday to Sunday, my mother was visiting and staying with me, which represents an aberration from my usual routine. This resulted in an extra load of laundry (cleaning to prepare for arrival) and extra visits to restaurants—I normally average much fewer than one restaurant visit per week, but I visited four over the recording period. These differences are significant because laundry and restaurant meals were my second and third largest water uses, respectively (Figure 2).
I recorded my domestic water consumption over the week of November 16 to 22, 2015. Table 1 summarizes my findings. Daily total water
Another potential issue with my consumption data is that it does not consider system leakage, as this data was unavailable. On average, leakage accounts for over 13% of Canadian indoor water use, so depending on the condition of my house’s water system, I could be missing a significant amount of water consumption (Saskatchewan Environmental Society & Saskatchewan Watershed Authority, n.d.).
Figure 1: Total Water Use Per Day (litres)
Figure 2: Percentage of Total Daily Water Use
Personal Water Consumption
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