I am struggling with how to save water with  our wasteful toilets. If its yellow, then let it mellow. If its brown, then flush it down. Sitting here I feel like I am  drifting back  into a third world country. There has to be a better way to do this.

I just learned that technology has already solved this issue. For the past 10-20 years many countries have toilets  that are better than  our  low flow variety. In Europe, Australia, South East Asia, China and Israel, they require dual flush toilets in all homes.

Dual flush ( 2 levers) uses 0.8 gallons per flush ( gpf) for liquids and 1.6 gpf for solid waste. The Sterling company a subsidiary of Kohler estimates that in a normal household with children dual flush technology can save up to 6,000 gallons of water per year per toilet. Retrofit kits are available for many brands of existing toilets at a reasonable price.  The California Urban Water Council has approved them as part of their strategy.

When  I discuss this issue in my neighborhood groups, it is not received very well.  They  remember the disaster with the  introduction of low flow ( 1.6 gpf) toilets and the need to flush not once but up to three times for solids. This is very unfortunate in that all of these initial problems have been solved and the newer  low flow toilets do  work fairly  well.

I have no confidence that our elected leaders will solve our water crisis any time soon. I do pray that some elected leaders have enough technological savvy to understand this issue and the dramatic impact that dual flush  can have on improving our  water conservation. They need to offer rebates for dual flush now.

Danny Wyatt
203 Springshade Court
Canton, Georgia 30114
Cell; 404.731.4855