The value of a quick shower

I didn't wash a single dish the year I turned 16. I was living in France with a host family, and whenever I asked my host mother if she needed help with anything, particularly laundry or dishes, her reply was always the same twinkling "no" — "My dear, you have far more important things to do. Go study." So for a good six months, all I had to do was clean my room, which wasn't hard because everything I owned at the time fit into two suitcases.

I have the suspicion, however, that she was lying to me when she told me not to bother with the dishes and the laundry. She's a lovely woman, so I'm sure she did have some concern for my devotion to my books, but to be honest, the 15 minutes it would take me to do the dishes probably wasn't going to make or break that A. Note well that I said 15 minutes; it would take my host mother five. The issue at hand was really water. It took me so much longer to do the dishes that, economically, it wasn't worth the labor I saved her.

This theory is backed up by the fact that the very first thing she did after introducing me to the family when I arrived at her house was to give me a lesson in showering. It wasn't an affront to my hygiene, of course she knew that I knew how to use the shower, but I didn't know how to do it the French way. So what's the French way? Simple: you turn the water on, get wet, turn the water off, soap up, turn the water back on, rinse off and finally, turn the water back off. It's not nearly as comfortable as the 20-minute shower under high pressure water, but it gets the job done, and more importantly, it's a lot less wasteful. When I came back from France my parents and friends were amazed by how quickly I took showers, especially since I had so reveled in long steamy ones before. But luxury finally won out, and I returned to my old wasteful ways.

Still, when I returned to France two summers ago, I recalled my host mother's advice and fell back into the custom of turning the water off during the shower. But I also stumbled upon something else: If I showered with ice-cold water, I could cut down my shower time to three minutes. It's an unpleasant experience, but a skill that served me well last summer — after all, the shorter my morning shower, the later I could sleep.

I'm trying to keep my showers down to three minutes this semester, despite the fact that I don't have class until 11 a.m. The credit for the idea must go to my friend Li, who reprimanded me on my abundant use of paper towels. Since it was too late to put the paper back, I offered to cut down my shower time — like buying carbon offsets. But it strikes me as a good idea now. For all that everyone seems to be worrying about carbon emissions and global warming, more thought should be given to water, especially since Americans tend to be so wasteful in that respect. We consume the most water per capita out of most developed country. In fact, the United States has actually managed to reduce water consumption since 1980, but there is still a long way to go.

In terms of the environment, the most efficient measure would be to raise the price of water. Certainly the fact that water and other utilities are heavily taxed in France has led to their conservation in that country. I'm not an economist, however, and I can't vouch for what other effects such a measure might have. It is not a politically viable suggestion.

At the University, one efficient way to reduce water consumption would be to cut off all hot water to the showers. Of course that would have several nasty side effects, including a sharp decline in student hygiene. (Not to mention the fact that I would probably become the most hated student on campus for suggesting the idea.)

Obviously in writing this, my goal has not been to propose any major reform, but rather to make people think about water conservation. Water is plentiful and comparatively inexpensive in the United States, but that does not provide a valid reason to abuse the resource. So here's a thought: Can you reduce your shower time by five minutes? Admittedly it's not a lot, but it's a start. Martha Vega-Gonzalez is a history major from New York, NY. She can be reached at mvega@princeton.edu.