Top Tips for Saving Water While Staying Home During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Hi mommies! How have you been coping? I'm sure that COVID-19 is dominating your thoughts right now. During the quarantine, I thought about all the other ways this virus was disrupting normality such as schools closing and events cancelled.

Somehow, I could feel the collective pain and fear that this pandemic is causing. The worry, anxiety, scarcity, and as always, our family's health and safety comes first.

For whatever reason, water has always felt like “safety” to me. Because we have continuous supply of water in our faucet, particularly now that we are on GCQ and we are more often going out, I feel a lot safer for my family as we have the means to wash our hands, take a bath and disinfect our clothes, shoes and other things that we brought from outside.

It's important that we follow the hand washing guidelines and other measures recommended by World Health Organization. Indeed, our water usage during ECQ went up because of more frequent hand washing, disinfection of the frequently used objects in our house, and taking a bath every after grocery runs. Given how important water is during a pandemic, I realized that it is also the time to teach our children about the responsible use of water. This is even more important now that we are spending more time at home due to the Coronavirus.

So if you would like to find ways to save water as well as save on your water bill, here are a few water-saving tips while staying home during quarantine.

• Teach children to wash hands often but don’t waste water. I always tell my kids to turn off faucets tightly while applying soap and after each use.

• Turn the faucet off while you brush your teeth. There's no use to just letting the water flow out while you're brushing your teeth.

• Check faucets and toilets for potential water leaks.

• Use a small basin in the sink to catch rinse water when washing fruits or vegetables. You can use that collected rinse water for watering your plants.

• Take a bath after going out but reduce shower time. Taking shorter showers will save lots of water. Better yet, use a bucket to catch that rinse water and use it for flushing the toilet. By reducing your shower time, you also reduce hair washing or you can use dry shampoo instead. This will not only save you water but shampoo and conditioner too!

• Water the plants with spray bottles or water guns or use a watering can instead of a sprinkler or a hose pipe. I give my kids spray bottles/water guns instead of a watering can or bucket. That way, they don’t waste water.

• Use a spare bucket or water butt to collect rainwater. You can use it to feed your plants on drier days.

• Wash clothes properly to kill the virus but limit the laundering to once a week, except for clothes which were used outside. It is better to wash it ASAP.

Water has always been important in our lives but this pandemic made me appreciate the gift of water even more. We can help fight the spread of COVID-19 by properly and regularly washing our hands with soap and water. This should be our habit, in fact, even after this pandemic is over.

These are just a few ways to save water during the pandemic, and it is pretty simple to make it into a habit.

Can you imagine if all the people at home started keeping these habits? The water savings would be tremendous. By being thrifty with the amount of water we use, we can not only save water but also save money and reduce our carbon footprint and fight climate change, all at the same time.

If each of us does these simple actions, it can really help our community and our planet, and make sure that there’s enough water for everyone during the coronavirus pandemic.

How are you saving water? Do you have a water saving tip you'd like to share? I'd love to hear your tips too! Comment below!