Earth hour, water usage and recycling

Okay, suddenly I am an environmentalist? Of course and have always been. In the office we recycle paper and reuse it, if I see one paper that is not used at the back that person is frawned upon, and they all know it. Also we try to refill the ink, or not print in general. That saved me Reams and Reams of paper every year.

Electricity is beyond me, not sure how to save there except of course to keep the lights off if one is not in the rooms, last night was earth hour, all the rooms were dim, I even prayed with the lights off, didn't even light a candle! So if you guys have a better way let me know.

Then comes the water, in every house we lived in we try to dig a well to use for watering the plants, washing cars and clean the grounds around the house. but since i started living in these communities that were developed by the likes of Emaar and union properties, we were not allowed to dig wells. My main problem is of course with the chlorine content in regular water that is supplied by the water authority, it could affect the plants, and also it is a shame that I wash my car with water that is not available to millions of children around the world. I never actually focused on the cost side of things.

Having said that I must talk about the cost of the water. We have always been paying between 2500-5000 dirhams a month for our electricity/water, never thought that this dilemma could be solved, except to work harder and gain more money to pay it back to the country, my dad used to say, baby, consider it a sadaqa (charity) to improve the electricity/water production in the country.

One day I was walking around the community that we've been living in for the past three years, suddenly the sprinklers went on, apart from the fact that I was sprayed and saoking wet with water, I felt that it didn't smell nice. I asked the Gardner, he said that the community has it's own recycling plant for water! What? I wrote to them straight away to find out if they can supply us with the same water, but no response, I went there and asked if we can pay for a cable extention to use the recycled water? No response. Anyway, one day I receive a circular that the community would like to install recycled water cable to houses if we would pay for them. Well of course we all said yes, or at least I did. And there, we had it. Guess how much I am paying in water and electricity bill now? Between 500-700 dirhams only. I photographed my payments history for you to see. Mind boggling wallah (by god).

So you don't only save the environment, but you also save your pocket.

Don't ask me where is the difference in the money? Did I save it? Naa, it must have gone on other stuff?