Water Week

H2O is the hot topic at casa Youle right now, as for one week only I'm living off African water rations in the name of cutting-edge journalism. A daily diary of my experiences and water usage will be kept here, and others may even log their thoughts on my increasing whiftiness.

In practical terms, my water allowance is 20 litres a day - the average for many Africans and probably some Gloucestershire residents at the moment. The normal daily water usage for a Londoner is about 160 litres, so the the numbers speak from themselves this is going to be a difficult adjustment.

When I started planning water week I had some worries - how often would I be able to shower, would I be able to cook pasta and rice as often as I usually do and would I need to invest in a new beaker for teeth cleaning? I don't have a car, or a dish-washer or a garden - surely this won't be too hard!

As my research continued, I realised the issues were going to be far more basic.

A bath uses 80 litres of water, a shower 35 - and that's for five minutes, not my usual splashingly long 20 minutes. Flushing the toilet once uses 8 litres of water, this made me panic. How was I going to survive on two toilet trips a day? Add two litres of drinking water to stay healthy and there's not much left to play with.

So I started body analysis. How many times a day did I go to the loo, never less than five after a few days counting. Oh dear! After discussions about whether I should increase my water supply (boyfriend - no that's what it's all about, what sort of journalist gives up when the going gets tough), I decided to go for the hard slog.

At best, I'm hoping to survive on one toilet flush a day and still wash occasionally. More than one person has already suggested that I should find a local park with bushy wildlife if the going gets really tough. I'm hoping it doesn't!

In preparation for the week ahead, I washed all my clothes this weekend and indulged in a long, hot bath yesterday evening. I know some might say this was cheating, but hell, I was already missing the blue stuff and thought I'd go out with a splash. I've also warned everyone I've spoken to that I might start to smell a bit by the end of the week, they have all been polite so far.

Armed with my measuring jug, an optimistic outlook and a new found respect for the amount of water I casually wash down pipes daily, the experiment has started. Watch this space.