5 Water Saving Tips For When You’re Caravanning Or Camping Around WA
Our new love affair with wandering out yonder doesn’t mean we should slacken off when it comes to water wastage. We’ve teamed up with Water Corporation to offer some valuable tips for saving water while journeying through the regions.
As our Western Australian summers (and years in general) get warmer and drier, it’s become increasingly important to practice waterwise techniques in our day-to-day lives. Popular caravanning and camping destinations like our State’s North West are already seeing longer gaps between wet seasons, with less reliable rainfall throughout the year. In the Mid-West, average temperatures are getting higher and rainfall is dropping, leading to higher and faster rates of evaporation and less water in dams and throughout these regions as a whole.
As the popularity of caravanning and camping continues to go up, it’s important to learn a few simple steps to helping reduce your water wastage while partaking – and here’s 5 to get you started.
1. Develop a one pot meal menu
There are few ways you can make the whole dining experience use as little water as possible, from cooking through to cleaning. One pot meals like pastas, soups and stews are a great way to keep it simple while using few utensils, pots and pans. Even better are no-water recipes like stir fries to really cut down on that water usage.
2. Make your clean-up process more efficient
There are plenty of ways to make sure your cooking kit stays clean without sacrificing litres of water to make it happen. Scraping your plates before washing is a simple first step, along with wiping them down with damp cloth. If you’ve used a large bowl you can make that your sink too. Rather than opting for disposable plates, a better alternative is meals that have the plates built in, like tortillas or wraps!
3. Make cleaning yourself up just as efficient
For on-the-go hygiene over the course of the day, wet wipes and hand sanitiser should do the trick – you are camping after all, what’s a bit of dirt under the fingernails if not a sign of doing it right?! When it comes to shower time, keep it short and simple by wetting yourself, turning the tap off, applying soap, rinsing soap off, fin! If you wanna get real serious, you can save the initial burst of cold water in a container to use later on dishes, and if you care about water saving that much try dry shampoo.
4. Laundry like a legend i.e. not too often
You’re out in the bush, living off the land, so we think it’s fair enough if you let your clothes get a little dirtier than normal! If you do need to wash a few things, try to use as little water as possible or even get a manual washing machine. Another option includes using freshwater from creeks or rivers – while they’re usually not safe for drinking they’ll do the job on clothes, dishes (after boiling) and showers.
5. Train your toileting to be water-free
If you’ve got an outdoor camping toilet, you’re already winning because they don’t use water in the first place, likewise, public drop toilets which are becoming more common. If your caravan has a in-built toilet, only flush when necessary and you can also save shower water to rinse it if needed.
For more tips on conserving water at an increasingly crucial time for our climate, head to the Water Corporation’s WATERWISE page.