St. Thomas University’s second water conservation challenge ends this week, but Kyla Tanner hopes students will turn what they’ve learned into habits. The students’ union sustainable lifestyles coordinator says the easiest way to reduce water usage is by having shorter showers.
“Every minute that you shower uses between 4 and 10L of water depending on the efficiency of the shower head. Just by shortening your shower for a few minutes every day will help to reduce.”
Other ways are by turning off the tap when brushing your teeth and lathering your hands, or keeping a container of water in the refrigerator instead of running the water until it’s cold.
Last year’s challenge was five weeks long but Tanner decided to make this year’s challenge two weeks to hold momentum. It began on March 14 and ends this Thursday. She says last year’s challenge was a success.
“I hope that students at St. Thomas are able to show that they understand the resource is valuable and really make efforts to use less not just during the challenge but also afterwards.”
Students in residence and Windsor Street housing are competing. Tanner had water metres installed on all of the residences and houses last year and facilities management took readings before the challenge began.
Tanner says reducing water usage helps the environment because there is a limited supply. Fredericton residents get most of their water from an aquifer under the city. She says aquifers take a long time to replenish, which can become a problem if people are wasting water.
“Water is a precious resource and I feel that a lot of Canadians see it in abundance, where that is not necessarily true.
There are many people in the world that do not have access to clean drinking water.”
