1. My Water Wise Project
By Anna#
Week 1
I found that we used the most water when in the evening, when Alistair had
a bath, Miriam and I had showers, and the dishwasher was turned on. We
also used a lot of water on days when the washing machine and dishwasher
were used the most.
My Water Wise Plan
My plan was to:
o Limit showers to four minutes,
o Use the dishwasher and washing machine on the eco setting only
and
o Limit Alistair’s bath to 10 centimetres of water
What My Family Thought of It
“I think it’ll work” -Mum
“The dish washer works best when it’s on the normal setting, but it’s a
pretty good plan”- Dad
“Four-minute showers? I can do that, but don’t you dare make it lower
than three”- Miriam
“Can I watch ABC kids now? Please?” –Alistair
What I Thought of It
“I think that I found the best ways for us to reduce our water use. I
think it work, as long as Dad doesn’t use the dishwasher and washing
machine on whatever setting he thinks is the best, but I may have to
reduce the shower times, or find something else to implement. Apart
from that, I’m pretty confident about it.”
Week 2
This week, I found that the average water use per day in our house went

2. down by just over 50L, to 387L, from 440L. We still used the most water in
the evenings, so I adjusted my plan to three-minute showers instead of four.
What My Family Thought of My Changes
“It’ll work better now, I think” - Mum
“You do know the dishwasher works best on the normal setting, don’t
you? It’s probably going to be more effective, though.” – Dad
“Three minute showers? I need my long showers!!!” – Miriam
“ Can you play cars with me?” -Alistair
What I Thought of My Changes
“I think we can reduce our water use even more than what we already
have. Two-minute showers would have been better, but then Miriam
would have ignored the timer, and had a longer shower anyway,
probably longer than three or four minutes. And Dad, don’t you dare
use the dishwasher on anything other than the eco setting!”
Week 3
This week was the worst week in terms of our water use. The daily average
went up to almost 500L (488L). I think this was because Mum started
training for a half-marathon with her sisters and sister-in-law, and Mimi and
I came along to their training sessions in Kings’ Park and Lake Monger early
in the morning, so we were having two showers per day instead of one. The
shower timer also broke half-way through the week when Alistair dropped it
several times. I also think that people just got bored with my plan, especially
Dad, who used the dishwasher on the normal setting most of the time.
What My Family Thought on How My Plan Worked
“It was a good plan, but it wasn’t implemented very well.” –Mum
“I had three-minute showers, but I used the dishwasher on the normal
setting because it washes better.” – Dad
“See what I mean?”-Mum
“It was pretty hard to implement. It takes three minutes for the
shower to warm up, and I got bored with short showers and had long
ones sometimes” – Miriam
“Can I watch Cars (a Disney/Pixar movie, and Alistair’s current
favourite) on the T.V?” – Alistair