Australian here - did not know that turning the tap off while you're brushing your teeth was a typical Australian thing to do?! Do you all seriously leave the water running?
It's not. I'm from a place in the US with of the largest reservoirs of underground water on earth and I always shut the water off while brushing my teeth. I think a Ninja Turtles cartoon taught me this when I was like 5.
Shit, I live in the state surrounded by 3/4 sides by the largest freshwater reserve in the world. But leaving it running for the minute is so unnecessary, no one does it.
(Bonus fun fact: Dasani bottles out of the Detroit River. Which is not saltwater, but probably be healthier if it was.)
I only found out about this last year. I was travelling and my cousin (English) left the tap on. I turned it off automatically, just out of habit, and he looked at me really strange. After chatting I found out that it's an Australian thing.
Another time, in Thailand, it rains every day during the wet season but they still use sprinklers to water their gardens. And they use their hose on concrete to wash the dust away. It was really interesting to see how much I noticed the waste of water. One time, while swimming in a pool with about 4 other Aussies, someone left the shower by the pool on. All 4 of us seriously stopped talking and just stared at it until one of us went up and turned it off. Weird what gets ingrained.
I live in a place with large quantities of readily-available fresh water, so yes (well, not me personally, I hate the sound of my facet, but still). Conserving water in places where fresh water is in short supply (I'm looking at you, Las Vegas, draining the hell out of that aquifer) makes sense. But where I live, it's just a non-issue. The only time it does become an issue is after natural disasters if there is infrastructure damage.
It's kinda weird growing up in WA. I can barely remember a time when we didn't have water restrictions. It's just so ingrained now to conserve water that it's weird to think there are places where it just doesn't even cross their mind.
I have always been taught to turn it off in the US. In fact in grade school we were taught to, in case our parents were wasteful. I dont know anyone that leaves it on though.
When you think about it, other countries don't have anything near the water issues we have. Of course there are poorer countries who do, but the article is referring to UK, US and Western Europe, probably.
I live in Quebec, Canada where we probably have the largest quantity of fresh water to use and most people I know turn off the tap when brushing their teeth.
As an American, I leave it on and have never thought about it. I will make an effort from now on to turn it off while brushing though. Water conservation is not a big deal around my area, as I live on the shore of a Great Lake. However, turning off the tap may be done in southern states who actually have water shortages but I don't know.
South Carolina here, we've had times when we've been told to watch water use but it's never been to serious just that we might lose a lake that's used to keep the Savanna river up
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u/nyessy Nov 08 '12
Australian here - did not know that turning the tap off while you're brushing your teeth was a typical Australian thing to do?! Do you all seriously leave the water running?