Today is a day like many others where we have been asked to stop and think about the environment for "Blog Action Day" and consider how we might be able to make a change to provide a better future for the earth, ourselves and the generations to follow.  Interestingly enough driving through the City of Fairfax today these yellow signs caught my attention and appeared every few feet as a reminder to residents about the current water restrictions.

Back in the late 1970's while living in Okinawa we were given the order that due to low water in the reservoirs that mandatory water rationing was in effect.  We lived in a 700 square foot house in a town a few miles away from the military base and for us this meant that every other day we had NO WATER coming out of our faucets.  Now think about this for a minute.  NO WATER at all.  No way to shower.  No water to wash clothes or dishes.  No hitting the handle on the toilet to flush.  This was serious water shorter on a tropical island of all places.  We learned how to fill the bathtub for flushing, stock a supply of drinking water in the fridge and use boiled water to wash dishes.  My son did have to switch to disposable diapers as there just wasn't a good way to deal with the dirty ones!  The lessons learned during that time have followed me around the rest of the world and back to Fairfax County where today's signs appeared.

In a world where there are still families who have no running water learning to conserve our natural resources should be a top priority.  Simple things that we don't think about can save a huge amount of water each month:

Fixing leaky faucet can save up to 20 gallons
Not letting the hose run while washing the car can save up to 150 gallons
Running only full loads in the dishwasher and washing machine saves 300-800 gallons
Shortening a shower by 2 minutes a day can save 700 gallons
Sweeping your sidewalk instead of hosing it down can save 150 gallons
Turning off the water while you brush your teeth can save 50 gallons

In some ways we have come a long way from the 70's in our efforts to clean up the environment and in other ways there are lessons we haven't taken as seriously.  Water is a resource we can't easily replace and we can all fix a leaky faucet today to help do your part to save water for the next generation!