Wise Water Habits

View From the Window of the Ark Column from the Korea Catholic Times. Text by Sisters of Notre Dame (Notre Dame House of Ecological Spirituality)

Wise Water Habits:

There are countries where people must spend five hours a day fetching just three liters of water—water of such poor quality that it causes illness, yet they have no choice but to drink it. According to the Korean National Commission for UNESCO, as of 2023, these include nations such as Ethiopia and South Sudan in Africa, as well as countries in North Africa. The situation is truly dire.

According to Paragraph 30 of the encyclical *Laudato Si’*, access to safe drinking water is a basic and universal human right. Pope Francis further appeals: “This world has a grave social debt towards the poor who lack access to drinking water, because they are denied the right to a life consistent with their inalienable dignity. This debt can be paid partly by an increase in funding to provide clean water and sanitary services among the poor.” (*Laudato Si’*, 30)

I first became aware of the importance of water conservation in 2012 after reading a leaflet from an eco-center. It stated that Koreans consume in a single day the same amount of water that Africans use in an entire month. Looking at our daily water usage habits, the claim seemed all too accurate.

I looked around my home to see where the most water was being used. While activities like dishwashing, laundry, and showering came to mind, the toilet particularly caught my attention. Depending on the model, a toilet tank holds roughly 10 to 13 liters of water, which is flushed away after every use. Considering the frequency of bathroom visits, this means the average person consumes about 100 liters of water daily just for toilet use. The very design of the system makes water waste inevitable.

That was when I began my journey toward a wiser way of using water. I started using a cup for brushing my teeth and—reviving an old habit—began using a receptacle for urine so that I would only flush the toilet once or twice a day. I also switched to hand-washing my laundry whenever possible.

Later, another incident made me rethink my water usage. A nun from Africa came to stay for a while at the Motherhouse of our Sisters of Notre Dame in Rome. Upon seeing the restrooms there, she expressed great indignation. She was outraged by the unfairness of it all: people in her home country had to endure such hardship just to fetch water, yet here, high-quality water was being squandered on flushing away waste.

Her anger sparked a profound change of heart in me. "I could just as easily have been born in Africa; instead, I was born in South Korea, where I’ve been thoughtlessly using clear water that pours out like a waterfall at the slightest touch..."

Thanks to this, the restroom became a sacred space for me—as holy as the chapel. While I might not think of the people of Africa every day in the chapel, whenever I step into the restroom, images of their lives play out in my mind like a documentary, prompting me to be mindful of how much water I use.

Although South Korea is not yet classified as a water-scarce nation, certain regions and seasons experience severe droughts. Due to the climate crisis, this phenomenon is becoming increasingly pronounced year after year. Following the disaster declaration in Gangneung last year, residents in southern regions—such as Suncheon and Daegu—are suffering from severe drought conditions this year. It is said that the government, civil society, and the industrial sector must cooperate to address water-related issues through measures such as efficient water distribution, recycling, and the application of advanced technologies.

Ensuring access to safe drinking water is also a practical step toward the primary goal of the "Laudato Si’ Seven-Year Journey": responding to the cry of the earth. A notable example of this involves Kenya, where people previously had to walk 10 kilometers to fetch water; the South Korean government stepped in to install water supply facilities at some 70 locations, using solar energy to pump up groundwater.

I believe that at the private level, too, we must repay the "debt" we owe to those suffering from water scarcity—not only through donations to provide water but also by adopting water-saving habits in our daily lives. This is because wasting water ultimately contributes to the climate crisis, and we all inhabit a single ecosystem where water waste in one place inevitably leads to shortages elsewhere.