This guest-post is brought to you by Yvy.

I can honestly say that I never knew how important water was when I was living in Malaysia. Truth be known, it didn’t feel as if there was a dire need to save water because we had plenty. More than enough that we could sell it, so on the surface, I didn’t really bother but that said, it doesn’t mean that I wasted water while back home. So please don’t get me wrong.

Water is seen as liquid gold in Australia. It’s so precious because despite being such a large continent, a huge part of Australia is just plain desert and not suitable for anyone to set up home in. It’s such a pity really because if all that land was green, WOW… It would certainly be amazing and we wouldn’t be losing farmers to suicide and bankruptcy on an almost daily basis during the drought. The coastlines are about the only possible living locations that most people flock to and I am not surprised. I may be only one person but I reckon that even one person may be able to make a difference if the world is spread.

Image credit: Water tap by TheGiantVermin.

At home, we try our best to use water sparingly simply because it would certainly help with the lack of water due to bad weather and the drought. Here are a couple of simple things that we do around the house which I think almost anyone can do too:

1. Buy a machine which uses the least amount of water hence, it’s water conserving. Then make sure that the washing machine has a full load before carrying out a wash. And when washing, run the ‘economy’ option that uses less water but enough to ensure a clean wash.
2. If there are leaky taps, repair them immediately and while waiting for the plumber to come, collect the water that drips and use the collected water to water your plants, wash the bathroom/toilet and fill the bird bath.
3. Washing your car with the least amount of water or better yet, wash your car when it rains heavily! :) It may look silly but it’s doable, no?
4. Collect rain water and use it to water your plants, wash your car, fill the bird bath and if you’re up to it, carry in the buckets and wash your toilets/bathroom.
5. Limit the use of water when washing up the dishes by not letting the water run as you rinse off the soap. I know that back home, I used to soap the dishes then run the water to rinse it. Now, I soap the dishes and use only half a basin of water to wash my dishes.
6. Cutting out long showers and try not to have baths in the bathtub - that’s a LOT of water being wasted there!

Image credit: Buckets geared up to collect rainwater by luciabee.

These are merely a few things that we actually do at home at the moment. In fact, we purposely bought an energy and water saving washing machine as encouraged by the Australian government. And for that, we got a rebate of AUD150. If the government is making an effort to save water, I don’t see why we can’t do our part as well.

Another thing which Australia is looking at is recycled water just as what Singapore is doing and water desalination which I totally agree with because it is a resource which is surrounding the whole of Australia so why not make full use of it? As a matter of fact, I’d rather drink desalinated water than recycled water although many have confirmed that recycled water tastes the same as normal water ;) I’m a little skeptical though so I rather not know if I’m getting recycled water or not because rumour has it that many suburbs are already getting this recycled water without being informed.

In this case, ignorance is bliss!

Yvy @ mistyeiz is a Malaysian who blogs at Little Cozy Corner. She is mum to baby Ella and wife to Ted. She has been residing in Sydney, Australia since Sept 2006 and is still learning the ropes of living in the land down under.