Don’t Waste a Drop
Last week we talked about making sure you bring enough water on camping and hiking trips and ways you can more easily carry that water on your back. However, in the Daily Report, we are asked to conserve water, due to the continuing danger of fires. How can one conserve water, even in an area where water is hard to come by? Let’s look at a couple of useful suggestions.
Where You Store It
Where and how you store water can either help you save water or help you waste it. A tightly sealed container will prevent evaporation from taking some of your supplies, especially in warm or hot weather. Also, water that is kept in several smaller containers will lead to more waste, since you usually can’t help but leave some moisture in the bottom of each bottle. One large container can prevent this.
When Washing and Cooking
Washing your hands or dishes can be the most wasteful activities you’ll do while camping. What can you do to conserve? Pouring water directly from a container onto the ground as if it were an outd
oor sink means loosing a lot of water to the ground. The picture to the right is an ingenious idea, which can be found at the Instructables website along with detailed, step-by-step instructions on how to make it. This field sink helps to conserve water while washing, and it doesn’t require any electricity, thanks to the handy foot pump. You can click the link and study the pictures (both in the original post and in the comments) and perhaps make your own design. (Be sure to thank the creator in the comments if it works for you.)
When cooking, water can be wasted when you overboil things. Making coffee in the morning? Nothing wrong with that, but don’t leave the pot over the fire so that half the water comes out as steam. Rememeber, every drop counts!
Why It Is Important
Why should you care about conserving water? Remember that, with fires still burning in parts of Texas, water is a valuable commodity in the area. And if a fire starts in Big Bend Area, the local reserves need to be as full as possible. It’s good to keep in mind, and most of Texas get’s its water from only a couple of water sources. So the water you use from a sink near Big Bend is the same water that’s fighting fires elsewhere.