Brainwaves of Desperation

Water scarcity drives me mad. Specially after three decades of existence with fairly less water trouble, and some years of absolutely no water problems.

This morning I got desperate. The taps ran dry as usual. But there was cooking left to do, some utensils needed a wash, my hair needed some shampooing...sigh. So what should I do? End up starving another morning? Or order food from the local food joint?


Hunger does get to you at times. I may not be able to reuse water that I just washed down on veggies, but I can use it to soak some utensils, or still better, use it to flush the toilet!

A worn out night gown I ripped apart, washed it, dried it. And filtered the water I had just washed vegetables with. This water I managed to use for little things like dipping my hands to rid of something sticky. To cook my favourite dish with gherkins, I steamed them in a small cooker instead of boiling the pieces directly.


To chop the pieces I am in the habit of using the cutting tray, a bowl to keep aside unwanted ends, and another to transfer chopped pieces into. I did away with the tray and devised another method to cut them. The chopped pieces of gherkin I transferred into a party paper plate, the unwanted ends went to a newspaper that partly replaced my cutting board.


After steaming the gherkins in saline water, I moved them to the pan for a quick fry, but did not throw away the water. The used water came in handy to make myself a yummy tomato onion soup, in the same cooker, with no nutrients lost. My method of cooking brown rice was rather fuel consuming though, and took up more water, but I guess there must be ways to work around that trouble.


The whole exercise was rather time consuming. And when water poured down from taps in my building, I was asleep too, and missed storing it. But then, I am learning quick. And a hunch says I may end up writing how-to survival pieces in water scarcity times!


I did not shampoo my hair today. Guess it gets reserved for the morning when taps will run water! My brainwaves in desperation did remind me a thing or two though - of those science projects at school which spoke of something basic - water filtering with sand and charcoal.

A google search has brought about some interesting results. Did you know that the water purifier industry will always tell you that home-made water filters are not good enough? Obviously it would! Hits their pockets doesn't it!


Here are some links:  

Homemade Charcoal Water Filter 

How to make water filter at home