World Water Day challenge is a tall order

To place the emphasis on World Water Day this past March 22, Oxfam-Québéc launched the World Water Day challenge, urging all Quebecers to try and live for 24 hours with only 20 litres of water. Why 20 litres? Because according to the UN, 20 litres is the minimum amount required to satisfy basic human needs.

Unfortunately, more than one billion people throughout the world don't have adequate sanitary conditions. Here's your opportunity to show your solidarity with these people and also to realize how fortunate we truly are to have so much access to water here in Quebec, to the point that we actually waste it…

In order to understand what a challenge this can be for you, you should know that a person in Quebec consumes on average 400 litres of water per day. We are the second largest consumers of drinking water in the world. The Oxfam challenge will therefore require that we reduce our consumption by 20 times; quite a feat!

My better half was the one who brought this challenge to my attention. She even attempted it and I can tell you it's not easy. Our morning ritual alone –bathroom, shower, coffee—consumes 75 litres. And these results were attained while taking a five-minute shower and using a toilet with a six-litre water tank and not a traditional model which consumes 16 litres. Satisfy your basic needs, you say? Once you add brushing your teeth, washing your hands, cooking, washing the dishes, watering your plants, etc, to the equation, it's a tough challenge to accomplish.

There are, however, more and more ways to save this precious resource: installing an efficient showerhead (reducing water consumption by 30%), installing a low-volume tank for your toilet, purchasing a front-load washing machine which consumes 40% less water and energy, etc.

But aside from all the technological advances, we have quite a bit of progress to make when it comes to our daily water consumption habits. And that's where the real challenge lies!