EarthSavers: Water Conservation Tips for Kids

by Ann Svensen

Did you know that every drop of water that runs down the drain ends up flowing into the sewage system? Sending clean water down the drain fills up the sewer and lets dirty water and waste overflow into the streams and oceans. Polluted water can harm, and even kill, animals who drink it and live in it.

What can you do?

Saving water is as easy as turning off a faucet! Here are six simple things you can do at home:

1. Don't keep the water running while you're brushing your teeth.

2. Take shorter showers. Make it a game. Keep an egg timer in the bathroom and see who can get their showers down to three minutes. (And still get clean!)

3. Help your mom or dad fix the dripping faucet. Did you know that it can waste 20 gallons of water a day?

4. Help your dad install a water-saving shower head. In addition to the water it saves, it also saves the fuel that would have been used to heat up the extra hot water. And that reduces pollution.

5. Fill a gallon plastic bottle with water and place it in your toilet tank. (The part in the back!) It will take up the same space as the water usually does, but in a year, it will keep 5,000 gallons of water from going down the drain.

6. Stop throwing away so many batteries. The mercury in old batteries will eventually leak out and poison the water it runs into. What can you do?
   
   • Buy rechargeable alkaline batteries. They can be charged 25 times. That means 25 batteries you didn't have to buy and throw away.