Water is the single most important resource on earth. Without it, there would be no life.
With extreme droughts in California this year and water shortages across the world, two students in the United Kingdom have started a campaign to conserve water at their university.
The campaign, named “Go With the Flow,” urges students to “Wake up. Pee in the Shower. Save Water. Save the Planet.” The campaign asks students to urinate in their morning shower instead of wasting water flushing the toilet.
In Slate.com’s report, the students from the University of East Anglia in Norwich, England, estimated they could save around 26 Olympic sized swimming pools worth of water in a year if students urinate in their morning showers.
Some University students seem to be open in doing their part to save the environment.
Riley Katz, computer science sophomore, said students have to be open minded about urinating in the shower when looking at the numbers.
“If you’re comfortable doing it, I guess it’s OK,” Katz said. “It is obviously environmentally forward to do that, but obviously not everybody is going to want to do that where they get clean.”
Katz said he may occasionally urinate in the shower — but only to save the environment.
“I’m not going to plan my showers around going to the bathroom,” Katz added.
Psychology sophomore Thomas Wisecarver, said he urinates in the shower and would not be opposed to doing it during his morning shower. Wisecarver assured he’s been “doing his part for a while now.”
“Well I’m in here and I don’t want to get the ground all wet, so I’ll just go pee in the shower,” Wisecarver said. “It’s all going down the drain anyway.”
Vincent Wilson, professor in the department of environmental studies, said conserving water in this approach may not pose an environmental risk.
Wilson said via email that shower water is considered “gray water, not black water,” like sewage. He said gray water generally contains soaps and other substances.
“Urine does not normally harbor microorganisms and thus does not present the same problems that fecal matter carries,” Wilson said in his email. “However, the plumbing in most of our homes, buildings and residential housing combines gray water with the black water outflow so that it all ends up in the same place.”
Wilson said “Go With the Flow” may work by reducing toilet flushing and conserving water.
Steven Waller, executive director of Residential Life, called the campaign creative but said he feels it’s not effective.
“I prefer the more conventional approaches,” Waller said. “If we’re going to do a campaign, instead of standing there and doing what they’re advocating, maybe we just turn the water off and shower a minute less.”
Waller said Residential Life has been proactive in reducing its energy costs. He said in the past 10 years, the department has reduced water consumption by 17 percent per resident.
Waller said his calculations show that 10 years ago, each resident used 24,000 gallons of water a year. That number is down to 20,000 gallons of water a year per resident for the past year.