Today brought about some interesting reminder.
City of Toronto workers came and told us that they would
turn off the water for 4-6 hours to fix a breakage.
Normally, it would not even be felt for the residents here,
since it is a Thursday – most are either working or at school. Being at home,
however, I rush to store water in large pots before they cut off the water,
thinking how I can ration this water through the day.
In the end, the water was only off for 2-3 hrs, and its
absence was not really felt. But it reminded of the time when I lived back in
Vietnam (how we have to save and ration our water) and of how precious water
is.
How it is in third world countries?
In Vietnam, water was a luxury, and still is (more so, the farther
you got away from the center city). Water source was not a steady supply. We
could go on for some time with water just barely dripping from the faucet. Or
we would have orange/ metallic tasting water.
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| Dirty tap water |
And so the need of
tank, pool, buckets. In my childhood, my every house I know has some kind of a
reservoir for water so that we have a steady supply of water when we need it.My
family built a huge brick tank. My friend house, which did not have a tank, has
big glass bottles filled with water. Water has to be left there, until the
debris settle, for it to be acceptable. And boiling is a must for it to be
drinkable. Depends on your location, your water can have a very different taste
to it (I do not have a sensitive tongue, but this I can testify to.)
Water was precious. We save our rice water and vegetable
cleansing water for dish washing. We safe floor cleaning water and rain water
to clean our yard and water the plant. We used water until it was dirty beyond
use before we pour it down the drain.
And Canada?
Here in Canada, however, water is not so precious. We have
bottled water, we discard half-used water bottle. We use tap water for drinking,
washing, and watering plant. My cousins growing up over here have no concept of
turning the tap down a notch to save some water. We put so much resource to make tap water to
drinkable level, and it is used for purpose less than that. It seems wasteful.
Of course there has been some program to save water,
including using rain water and reusing hand washing water to flush the toilet.
And I am glad for that. But really, we must be all very aware of our water
usage and must use them better.
Conclusion
I remember watching a movie, where many characters (living
in a hard time) had but one bottle of clean water in the morning to ration
between them to brush their teeth and wash their faces. That’s what happens in
third world countries.
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| And even in rural China |
I actually at the better end of things, I still have water supplied to my house, rather than having to go fetch water like many others in Africa or having no clean water like those in rural areas (Watch
Here).
My point is the same, water is precious and limited, and we
should use it with care. This incident reminds me again the days when water was
scared and the places where water is scared.
P/S. countryside has
their own way to get clean water – collecting rain. I had the pleasure to live
in the countryside for sometimes, and the rain water was the best experience
ever, clean, cool, and refreshing, very different from the water I usually had
in the city. But again, we can only collect rain in rain season, so it is not a
steady supply. I guess I am still glad that it is not dessert like Africa.
