Stop Wasting Water Now!!

Word count: 647 (includes reference)

I have found the most wonderful way to save time, money, and at the same time, the environment. This is a radically efficient and fail-safe plan guaranteed to make life better for everyone. It takes no money, saves significant amounts of time and is a simple thing to do.

This radical idea will save millions of dollars, our valuable time and natural resources, and may even stop the threat of global warming and the impact of drought in their tracks. It’s something everyone can and should do to contribute their part to make the world a better place for now and for generations to come.

What is this wonderful plan? You might ask. It’s so simple even a child can do it and would do so quite happily in my experience. The beauty of the idea is its purity and simplicity. It takes no special tools or skills and can be done by anyone.

What I’m talking about here is what most of us do every day, sometimes every other day, some even twice a day. We are a nation of bathers, simply stated, and we are killing ourselves and our environment by doing it.

The USGS estimates the water usage for household uses was approximately 3.5 billion gallons in 2000, of which over 30% or more than 1.0 billion gallons was used for bathing and showering in domestic households. Imagine the savings we could realize if we took the simple action of not bathing. We could change the world!

The plan is as easy as it can be. All you have to do is stop bathing. Just that, nothing else, and watch your savings and time increase. Your productivity will be enhanced by the extra time you have. Another bonus—you’ll have extra storage space in your home. Imagine your bath or shower converted to closet space. Ladies, I’m talking to you. Who doesn’t need more storage? We’re talking 105 cubic feet or more of storage for most standard bath units.

Think how much money will be saved by not having to buy soap, shampoo, body wash, and all the millions of products the big companies have convinced us all we must have in order to live a good life. Let’s show them! We don’t need their stinking products. We’d be doing ourselves a favor. Have you read what’s in these so-called healthy products? Well, I can’t pronounce half of them; carcinogens, irritants and poisons are what they are. Even more compelling is the effect water itself has on skin. Water dries out skin and along with the aforementioned cleaning products, strips skin of its natural protective oils, essentially drying it out and making it more susceptible to breach by bacteria and viruses. Dry skin is unhealthy, damaged skin.

It’s not a new idea, really. Only recently have humans made the leap to bathe excessively and unnecessarily. Bathing has only been the popular thing to do since about the beginning to the middle of the 20th century. Certainly the Romans had public baths and the wealthy bathed, but look where the Roman Empire ended up. Also consider third world nations, the population rarely bathes, why not follow their noble example? Essentially, we as humans have been NOT doing it much longer than we have, so what better way to go back to our roots?

Every time we turn on the news we see yet another story about how reservoirs are drying up and families have little or no clean water. If we stop bathing, think how much water would remain in the reservoirs and aquifers for drinking. It’s much better to put the water in you than on you, don’t you think?

Consider carefully and you’ll agree with me. Stop bathing now! Our country, nay, the world, depends on it.

References:
for usage statistics http://pubs.usgs.gov/circ/2004/circ1268/htdocs/table02.html
for information on cholera, plague and other infectious diseases caused by poor hygiene http://www.haciendapub.com/faria4.html