Announcements:
The Fall Tour fundraising committee held its first meeting 23Mar21 and have struck 2 subcommittees. Stay tuned.
Training for cleanup at V. A. Barrie Park is set for 31Mar21 about 5:15 pm. We will get a zoom link by email with specifics.
Polio Plus Tulips fundraiser. We can sell boxes at $14 each. The Tulip captains are right for the job because they are Dutch and know tulips. Stay tuned for more details.
As the Wayside is not open for lunch, we will continue with weekly Zoom meetings.
President Gerry lead a discussion about how we are using Zoom. Catharine networks her clothing business by Zoom. Some do exercise classes by Zoom. Gerry misses the one on one conversations that go with live meetings, and he thinks the 'Chat' feature is a poor second best. It was agreed that Zoom allows us to broaden our horizons because we can get to meet people from long distances whom we would previously not have met. Malcolm Zooms with family in UK. (by the way, Malcolm your history book is doing the rounds and is interesting). Zoom saves travel costs/time and resulting fossil fuel use.
Our club received a thank you note from Tulio Hernandez for the Doris Evans scholarship he received as the top performer. The Scholarship Committee needs marks from adjudicators before the certificates can be sent to performers.
Trish read a letter from her mother, Kathy Willson thanking the club for flowers. 4 flower arrangements were delivered to spouses of former Rotarians.
Nancy Lovelock presented: Water Challenge for St. Thomas Rotary – 2021
Some facts:
- 2.2 billion people lack safely managed drinking water
- 4.2 billion people lack safe sanitation
- 300,000 children under the age of 5 die every year from water-borne illnesses
- The average Canadian uses 329 litres (72.37 imperial gals.) daily (pre-pandemic)
- The average per capita use in developing nations is 20-30 litres (4.4-6.6 gal) daily.
- The average African household uses 22.73 litres daily (5 gal.) and may travel up to an hour to get water
- WHO specifies that 20-50 litres per day (4.4-11.1 gal.) are required to meet basic needs.
The following table (McGill University Water Consumption Facts 2021) breaks down daily use in Canada. I’ve set it up in a table for easier reading.
10 % | Drinking, meal preparation | 32.9 l | 7.24 gal |
25% | Cleaning (laundry etc.) | 82.4 l | 18.5 gal |
30% | Toilet Flushing | 98.7 l | 21.7 gal |
35% | Bathing, handwashing etc. | 115 l | 25.3 gal |
The following table lists the amounts in litres and imperial gallons for basic uses of water in our households (various sources & approximate)
Handwashing (approx. 12x daily) | 25.2 l | 5.54 gal |
Laundry (one large load) | 113.65 l | 25 gal |
Toilet flushing (the average is 5 flushes daily per person) | 27.28 l ea. | 1.6-6 gal |
5 minute shower ( for every extra minute add 11.3 l or 2.5gal) | 56.8 l | 12.5 gal |
One dishwasher round | 27.3 – 72.7 l | 6-16gal |
Handwashing dishes in sink | 41-123 l | 9-27gal |
Finally – we pay $2.00 for every 1000 litres for municipal water here. In African countries, enough 1.5 litres of bottled drinking water to meet the needs of a low-income family can cost up to 20% of daily wages.
THE CHALLENGE
For one day, tally up your water use over the 50 litres recommended by WHO for basic living requirements (many people get much less) and multiply that by 10 cents. You are welcome to include others in your household and maybe also challenge yourself to keep below the daily Canadian average of 329 litres per person. (There are lots of suggestions online for home water conservation)NOTE: NANCY WILL TABULATE THE RESULTS OF THE CHALLENGE FOR HER PRESENTATION 7APR21. Here is Stew's report; from our utility bill, 142 cu m/361 days=.3933cu m per day. /2people=.1966 cu m per person per day; converted to 43.24 Imp gal per person per day. The average monthly use is 11.8 cu m per month. Peak months consume 23 in May and 27 in June (lawn irrigation). the low month was Dec with 3 cu m.
You can make your donation to St. Thomas Rotary Foundation, Shelter Box or WASRAG to help provide water and sanitation to some of the 2.2 billion who can’t turn on a tap for a safe drink of precious water.
Discussion:
Malcolm mentioned that 2 local Indigenous groups live with a boil water advisory.
Nancy has helped to resettle refugees; they are reluctant to drink water from a tap, even when shown it is safe to drink. Britta filter systems were suggested. We got a bit sidetracked on tankless water heaters, which are meant to conserve natural gas. Ron reported that leaky faucets can be 14% of the cost of water.
Here is an interesting report about projects in Nepal.
