We all know how important water is. Hamma, the original blood bender from the Southern Water Tribe in the Avatar Universe, once said, “Where there is life, there is water.”
Physicists understand the importance of water in what is known as the Goldilocks zone when looking for hospitable planets. If the Exoplanet is too far from or too close to the parent star, liquid water won't exist. At the moment, liquid water is something that does not exist in my village, and many places in Lesotho.
In this post, I will compare how we use water in Lesotho and the US. There are 4 categories that will be discussed: Showers, Dishes, Clothes, and Toilets.
Showers:
How long is your average shower?
I know mine was about 40 minutes. I wouldn’t even use soap. I would just stand there, thinking about how I would get to space, why I don’t have super powers, or even where I should eat. That was about 88 gallons per shower. I know...I was wasteful, and not even that clean, but lets look beyond that. Side note...I drove a prius. Continuing....
In the United States, showerheads are limited to 2.2 Gallons per minute. The average shower time in the states is 10 minutes for a male, and 18 minutes for a female. Therefore the average person uses 31 Gallons of water per shower.
To get ready in Lesotho, we bucket bathe. I heat up 1 scoop of water and mix it with 2 scoops of cold water to get that perfect temperature. The scoop that most Basotho and I use is 1.5L. Therefore my bucket baths amount to 4.5L or 1.2 Gallons.
To summarize, a typical American will get ready with 31 Gallons of water, and a typical Mosotho will get ready with 1.2 Gallons.
Basotho use 96.1% less water to bathe than Americans.
Dishes:
The average dishwasher in The States uses 45 gallons per load.
To wash the same amount of dishes, I use 4 scoops of water, which is 6L or 1.55 Gallons.
Basotho use 96.6% less water to wash the same amount of dishes as Americans.
Clothes:
A typical top-loading dishwasher uses about 40 gallons per load.
For the same amount of laundry, My ‘M’eighbor (She is my ‘M’e and my neighbor) uses about 40L or 10.3 Gallons.
Basotho use 74.3% less water to wash the same amount of clothes as Americans.
Toilets:
The average American flush of the glorious porcelain throne is about 1.6 Gallons per flush. The average person visits the toilet about 7 times a day for his or her diverse excretory needs. That’s a total of 11.2 gallons in a day.
In the remote villages of Lesotho, we do not use water for our business. Instead we have outdoor pit latrines. For those 7 times the average Basotho and I use the latrine, we use zero water. We also have convenient indoor “pee” buckets designed for that nighttime urgent awakening.
Basotho use 100% less water than Americans to relieve themselves.
Lets calculate:
Here is a math problem.
If Joe Americano and Abuti Tebatso (my Sesotho name) have a typical day, as in they use the bathroom 7 times in the day, they each wash one load of laundry, they each wash the same amount of dishes, and they each get ready in the morning by either showering or bucket bathing, how much less water does Abuti Tebatso use?
Joe Americano will use 127.2 Gallons. (Average American)
Abuti Tebatso will use 13.1 Gallons. (Average Mosotho)
Basotho use 89.7% less water than Americans.
Take Away
Right now in Fobane, and many places in Lesotho there is a water shortage. The country has been rampaged by a drought for many years now, and it has had its toll. Crops are not as bountiful, rivers are drying out, and dust storms are becoming the norm. I use less than one bucket a week, which is 20L. And that is without trying to conserve. I feel like a water bender in the middle of the desert. Without water, I am wary to bathe. I am wary of cooking pasta or accumulating dishes. I am wary to wear fresh clothes because that means I need to wash more. There is a lot more to worry about than whether the new Hunger Games Movie will be sold out. Therefore if you are reading this, I urge you to try your best to be less wasteful with the most precious of resources in life.
