Water Conservation Demonstration
Objectives: Demonstrate how simple it is to conserve water while doing things such as not leaving the water running while brushing one's teeth.
Materials: four buckets (two filled with water)
Important Facts to Point Out Before Demonstration:
- A household can save up to 20,000 gallons of water each year by conserving water through not leaving the faucet running while doing everyday things such as washing dishes, washing cars, shaving, and brushing teeth.
-A running faucet puts 3-5 gallons of water down the drain every minute.
-You can easily use more than 5 gallons of water if you leave the tap running while you brush your teeth.
* If you just turn on the faucet to wet and rinse your brush, you use only 1/2 gallon of water.
Demonstration:
Two people stand next to each other behind two empty buckets pretending to brush their teeth. Two other people will be next to each person holding a full bucket of water (they represent the faucet). One tooth brusher is person who keeps the faucet running while the other conserves water by only turning on the faucet to wet and rinse the tooth brush. The two people with the full buckets of water will pour water into the empty bucket each time the brushers pretend to reach in front of them to turn on a faucet. Therefore, the person next to the wasteful brusher will constantly be pouring water into the bucket on the floor. By the end of the demonstration one bucket on the floor will be filled with water while the bucket in front of the "water conserver" will be nearly empty. Point out how much water was saved by not keeping the faucet running.
sources: The Earth Works Group. 50 Simple Things You Can Do to Save the Earth. Earthworks Press, Berkeley, CA. 1989.