One conservation measure that I learned while I was in Thailand at the wildlife sanctuary was how to use a Thai Flush. Basically, that meant that when it was time to flush you'd take a scoop of water from the bucket on the right and pour it into the toilet. Gravity would pull the water down and clear the bowl.

What the toilet lacked in sanitation it made up for in creativity... I have to be honest, there is no better way to measure and minimize the water wasted with each flush than to make a person use a scooper each time they need to pour in a little more water.

Being that in America about 40 percent of the water used in the home gets flushed down the toilet each day, I have to admit the basic thai approach is a far more efficient process. Even dual flush and low flow toilets still push a gallon or so of water down the drain with each flush.

I think that with our modernization we've become detached from how much water we waste doing simple things, and what we need to remember is every time we flush that's a few gallons of clean water being taken from a water source that could feed people and animals. After pondering that for a bit I guess I've been converted... maybe for the sake of drinking water it's just more worth it to use a scooper in a bucket instead of a flush?