Thus is the sentence ending of the line “Water, water everywhere…” from The Rime of the Ancient Mariner by Samuel Taylor Coleridge.

For a week, such was our lives. We had to have our water turned off due to a leak in our main pipes which required a water main line change. Of course, the leak would occur right before the Memorial Day weekend and the water company had a typical bureaucratic response. While it was most inconvenient, our neighbors were extremely kind to let us use their outdoor spigots to water our newly installed flower garden and fill containers so we could flush toilets.

It was interesting my thought process during this “home drought.” I was saying to one of the neighbors, “Well. This is a first world problem.” Then I stopped and thought. “No. Actually this is a third world problem that many people live with all the time.” I thought of those who never had running water, those who have lost water due to drought and war torn places, and those refugees who are struggling to find food and water. The rationing water made me think of the time I spent visiting my sister in Africa. She had limited electricity (rationed throughout the day) as well as limited running water. I remember filtering our kitchen water and learning to take cold showers.

I was also reading The Nightingale, by Kristin Hannah (highly recommend). Set in Occupied France during WWII, The Nightingale tells the story of two sisters as they navigate the war. The account of the deprivation/starvation/rationing of the people was fascinating, made all the more real since we were rationing our water.

In some ways it is amazing how quickly I forget basic survival skills. It just takes some planning and thinking. I can survive without water flowing from the tap. I just have to fill buckets and think of what water I will need through out the day. Of course, the beauty of consistently running water is that you do not have to think about it. And that can make us too compliant and wasteful.

For instance, how long does it take for running hot water to get hot? According to This Old House, if you ran your shower for 10 seconds you could collect between 1 1/3 and 1 2/3 gallons of water or 8-10 gallons per minute. All that water down the drain while you wait. (Of course, being on the public water system, the waste water is recycled to some extent.) But having had to lug gallon jugs of water from our neighbor to do the washing up in the kitchen, the number of gallons per minute, even for a quick shower seems obscene.

(In the past I have used pitchers or old milk bottles to collect the water as it warm and then use that water to water my plants. Reading about the number of gallons per minute, I am rethinking my plan and how best to collect and “save” all that water.)

As the pipe was being replaced I spoke with the water inspector. One of the things that I did not know was that our water flows due to gravitational force. To me that is unbelievable. How can we (or any of the other 60,000 town residents) get any water pressure at all. But we do.

While earlier civilizations in Egypt and India had aqueducts, it was the Romans who perfected the system: using gravitational force- through building pipes, tunnels, canals, bridges and the natural structure of the land. And that type of system (with some moderations, no lead pipes) is still being used today. What an engineering marvel.

I think of all the other type of “modern” conveniences that I take for granted: electricity, transportation, communication, refrigeration, heating, cooling- many inventions that came during the industrial and post industrial age. I very rarely give any of those services/utilities a thought. And perhaps it is a good thing that I do not spend too much time worrying about the day-to-day existence.

Yet this water situation has me thinking about other resources that I use/abuse. Do I turn off the lights when I leave a room? Have things delivered when I could wait and pick up a grouping of items during an one-errand trip? While we generally have at least one meatless meal a week, I am committed to regularly plan for meatless meals. I also intend on using my bicycle for local errands (fortunately there are two grocery stores nearby). I also want to find out more information about helping global communities obtaining drinkable water. Here is a start: Click here.

What about you? Have any water or electricity issues? What happened? Did you appreciate the service when it came back on? For how long?

I know that there are the skeptics who say that doing a little change in our behavior is a “drop in the bucket”. Yet, I firmly believe that if everyone did a little thing, it would add up to big change, because little things matter. You can find plenty of examples in the natural world: microscopic organisms (phytoplankton and the like) feeding the entire ocean food chain; millions of insects supporting the animal food chain as well as our agricultural system; 10^27 (billions of billions of billions) atoms making up one human body. If any of these organisms are depleted, lacking or harmed, the larger system suffers.

The older I get, the more I'm conscious of ways very small things can make a change in the world. Tiny little things, but the world is made up of tiny matters, isn't it? ~ Sandra Cisneros

Great things are done by a series of small things brought together. ~ Vincent Van Gogh