Ultimate Drought Survival Guide
I grew up in an Alaskan rainforest, so nothing makes me feel more alive than the sound of rain falling on rooftops and the smell of the forest after a fresh downpour. Over the past few years in Africa, as global warming has taken hold, I have become familiar with, and even strangely grateful for, the experience of being lost in an endless desert with no oasis. It’s certainly not the stuff of happy dreams, but our experience of drought has taught all of us in Southern Africa a new respect for our intimate and interdependent relationship with the planet – and THAT has been a long time coming.
To become fully conscious of the fundamental value of this precious resource is to feel alive and connected in a way that we never have before.
I want to reassure every one of you reading this post from Cape Town - you will survive the drought. You may even become stronger and more capable in the process. You can in fact, guarantee surviving the drought by radically changing your water usage, which is actually kind of cool. Having camped (two babies in tow) through drought-stricken Namibia for weeks with no running water and lived through several pipe bursts, I feel vaguely qualified to write an informative piece on drought survival skills.
I have endeavored to amalgamate my personal experience with extensive research to present comprehensive tips that will empower you to live well when water is scarce.
PERSONAL HYGIENE
How to have a shower with only 2.5L of water
1. Buy a Gardena rose sprayer and fill it with very warm water. This works beautifully for hair washes and the light mist ensures you are covered but also disperses the water so you feel like you are actually showering. The water needs to be hot as you can handle to maximize the cleaning power. Keep a bucket to catch the spare spray off and use that to flush the toilet.
2. Fill a bucket with 2.5L of very hot water. Take a decadent sponge and cover it with soap and dip in water, then squeeze it over yourself and the bucket. Rinse with the spare sponge water. Use that spare water to soak and pre-wash any dirty clothes, then use the balance to flush the toilet.
3. BABY WIPES! Use them religiously as an alternative to showering
4. To avoid getting sick, try to avoid bringing your kids to public places as often as possible. You can usually be aware of keeping hands sanitized after every shop, but it may be harder with kids. Take them into nature rather than shopping malls.
Handwashing without running water
1. Take a spray bottle and fill it with a solution of 15 drops tea tree oil, 4tbsp vinegar, and 5tbsp Castile soap in 1 c water. Use this as a hand sanitizer. Store bought sanitizer can kill your gut flora resulting in more likely exposure to the gastric viruses that will start to spread when people stop washing regularly. I highly recommend carrying this with you everywhere you go.
2. Sticky hands attract yuckies, so keep the same solution in a bowl next to your sink with just ½ c water so you can do a day of handwashing, then use that same water to flush the toilet
3. Get a big pile of washcloths to dip in the solution above and use 1 per day to wipe hands in the day, and remaining body parts in the evening (instead of showering). Maybe skip the tea tree for this one because it can be sore on some parts!
4. To brush teeth, fill 1/4c of water and get the family together to do their toothbrushing. Dip every brush in the water, brush, and everyone has one quarter of that cup to rinse with.
HOUSEHOLD JOYS
Washing up
1. Keep one bucket inside the sink and another small pitcher outside the sink. Fill the sink bucket with 2L of nearly boiling hot soapy water (DO THIS IN THE KETTLE TO AVOID WASTEAGE) and let the stuff soak for a bit. When it’s cooled down, wash everything but don’t rinse. Put it all in that dish rack thing then pour the pitcher of 500mL of clean water over the lot to rinse it, catching it in the sink bucket. Reuse this same water through the day for as long as you can. Use this old water to flush the toilet.
2. For lightly soiled dishes, spray them with the same vinegar solution you use for hands and wipes them with a soft towel.
3. When you cook something oily in a pan, boil a few tbsp of water and soap in the pan to clean it really well and pour that down the toilet then clean the pan with the rest of the dishes to keep the water going and going.
4. Let your dogs lick the plates clean before you wash them
5. Buy the very most water efficient dishwasher and make sure you know the exact usage and settings. Once we get down to 25L we won’t be using it but hey.
6. Reuse pans as many times as hygienically possible without washing (like the vegetable steamer)
7. Use microfibre cloths rather than sponges to clean surfaces - they carry fewer germs and dry quickly so you can wash/dry them with the dishes
8. You will need to wash veggies to keep yourselves free of tummy bugs, so use a little bit of Miltons (or vinegar / tea tree) in the veggie wash to kill the bugs.
Laundry
1. Make a spray solution of Vinegar or Stay Soft and spray down clothes after they’ve been pre washed in whatever water is available - or just spray them only. Hang to dry.
2. Wear dark colors and wear them as dirty as you can stand.
3. Use really strong deodorant – I’m not joking. I used to be a natural deodorant user , but nowadays I just have to suck it up and use a good old dose of the drugstore stuff to wipe out sweat before it hits the skin. You can also use apple cider vinegar. This is a big t shirt saver in warm climates.
4. Wear breathable fabrics – you really should anyway, but they don’t trap odors as badly as the synthetic stuff.
5. Ladies you can extend the lifespan of your panties by wearing superthin panty liners all the time!
6. Pre-wash clothes in your old shower water and then put them through the rinse cycle only with some vinegar in the fabric softener section, making sure you stuff that washing machine so full you can barely close the door. If it gets really bad, we will be using our baths to wash the clothes and only use vinegar.
7. Try to spot clean clothes as much as possible
8. Let your kids run naked or just in undies often as possible in summer – it’s easier to clean bodies than clothes.
9. Stop using cloth nappies / diapers (BOOHOO!). I love mine passionately, but I had to make the hard choice to stop using them while we wait for our water supply to recover.
10. Take steps to avoid getting clothes dirty if possible
Toilet
1. Throw paper from wees in bin rather than toilet so it’s easier to flush
2. Use vinegar inside the toilet and cistern to control smelly odors
3. Consider installing a Waterloo - see end of article for resources
Cooking
1. Try cooking and eating straight off the braai and use one big salad bowl for the family.
2. Wipe vegetables clean as much as possible if there isn't concern about Listeria.
3. Put plastic wrap on top of plates to eat on, then put dishes straight back into cupboard rather than washing.
COLLECTING WATER
1. You have presumably bought lots of 5L bottles for drinking. Make a wall of those bottles by connecting them all to one another and linking the top one as a funnel beneath your gutters.
2. Leave your massive garbage bins out during any rainfall and disinfect that water with MIltons to use for household use
3. Consider buying a Water From Air machine for drinking water
FURTHER RESOURCES FOR WATER SAVING – CAPE TOWN
Verve (www.vervewater.co.za) – If you are an environmentalist (you should be), this is 100% the best option for securing fresh drinking water, and they supply all the top restaurants in Cape Town. They use glass bottles only, which they deliver in big crates and then they have a “buyback” system so you don’t waste resource recycling but they actually get sanitized and reused by the same agency. They also supply either fizzy or still water.
Aquazania (www.aquazania.co.za) – They can either supply a water dispenser which you rent on a monthly contract basis so you have drinking water available full time at home. Alternatively, you can order plastic bottles by the crate but I don’t recommend this because it results in a great deal of waste.
Waterloo (www.mywaterloo.co.za) – This is a really simple system to add on to your toilet in order to create your own easy off the grid greywater flushing system.
Water from Air (www.waterfromair.co.za) – Kind of wacky, this system is very expensive but if you want to be 100% guaranteed about water security, this machine takes the humidity out of the air and creates potable water for drinking, cooking, and I suppose if it was really dire then washing as well. The last I heard they were on backorder but worth checking out.
