Water consumption (1) by Tiffany Ong

A few years ago, my kids were taking very long showers. I wanted a way to explain to them how important water is and should be used sparingly but in a very simplified way that they could relate, understand and empathise with, so some elements and concepts might not be completely accurate. I was inspired by a lot of the data comics others were sharing and wanted to make something that had a similar feel.

I asked them to think about the ways they used water at home and we narrowed it down to 4 scenarios:
- Showering
- Washing hands
- Laundry
- Flushing the toilet

I asked them how many times or how long they thought they did each activity, and we wrote them down. With laundry it was the amount of clothes they would wash a week and converted roughly into the load per day.

Tiago was 6 years old and interested in Lego so he made the four scenarios with blocks all by himself. I helped with stacking the blocks at the end to make it bar chart like, photographed each piece and compiled them in Photoshop with his help choosing fonts, adding text and numbers.

The showers after were incredibly quick and it became a bit of a race on who could have the shortest ones but unfortunately after a few weeks they didn’t seem to care much anymore and reverted back. But I hope they will hold the memory of this project we did together and grow to understand and appreciate the value of water better as they grow older.