Water thrift tips
As the temperature rises with the onset of summer, so do frayed tempers. It’s bad enough having to endure the heat; what’s worse is waking up one morning to find your faucets at home bone-dry. Tubig!
The public consumption of water shoots up as it gets hotter. With that grim thought in mind, the environmental advocacy group EcoWaste Coalition hands out some thrift tips to guide Filipino consumers on how to conserve water during the long, hot summer — and to make it a habit all year-round, too. The eco group has come up with its 15-point Water Tipid Tips as part of its ongoing advocacy for ecological lifestyle reforms to arrest the further destruction of our natural resources and ease the waste and climate crises.
Stresses seasoned recycling guru Luz Sabas, “We really need to bring back the low-tech practices of our lolas (grandmothers), like catching rainwater through the alulod (gutter), which has been done for ages, to conserve our precious water resources.”
For her part, Neneng Joson of EcoWaste shares a bucketful of wisdom, “For instance, when taking a bath, the water used for final rinsing can be reused for soaking clothes before these are washed with soap. The soapy water can still be reused for flushing the toilet and for other household purposes.”
The Water Tipid Tips were culled from the text messages received from Ms. Philippines Earth 2007 Jeanne Harn, zero waste advocate Luz Sabas, gay rights activist Danton Remoto, and ecologists from the Bangon Kalikasan Movement, Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines-National Secretariat for Social Action, Justice and Peace (CBCP-NASSA), Concerned Citizens Against Pollution (COCAP), Environmental Advocates Reaching Towards Humanity-University of Santo Tomas (EARTH UST), Global Alliance for Incinerator Alternatives (GAIA), Krusada sa Kalikasan, Miriam PEACE, Mother Earth Foundation (MEF), November 17 Movement, and Sining Yapak.
Read and remember these 15 top water tipid tips:
1. Get hold of a wrench and fix all dripping faucets, pipes, water containers, and toilet tanks. Replace worn-out sapatilya (washers) without delay.
2. Use a glass of water when brushing your teeth. Don’t let the water run while you’re brushing your teeth, shaving, or washing your face and hands.
3. Use a timba (pail) and tabo (dip) when taking a bath, keep your bath short, and use just enough water.
4. Fill up a half-gallon container, seal, and put inside the toilet tank to cut on water use in every flush.
5. Collect water dripping from air conditioners, use it to wash your mop or water the plants.
6. Organize your laundry schedule and wait until you have a full load before you use the washing machine.
7. Use laundry water for cleaning used bottles, cans, and other recyclables, blinds, rugs, doormats, and car wheels.
8. Keep a bucket in the bathroom and laundry area for the grey water. Use this water to flush your toilet, clean the laundry area and car port or to dampen dusty roads.
9. Do not hose down your driveway or footpath. Use the walis tingting (broomstick) to sweep the place clean.
10. Wash fruits and vegetables in a palanggana (pan) instead of running water from the tap; reuse the water for watering the plants.
11. Do not throw rice wash down the drain; use it for washing dishes or watering plants.
12. Thaw frozen meat in the refrigerator overnight, not on running water.
13. Use fewer cooking and dining utensils and dishes to cut down on the water needed for dishwashing.
14. Never waste water served during meals; drink it up! (As you’ve probably noticed, some restaurants will not serve you water unless you ask for it. So, other than a clean plate, you must have a clean glass, too.)
15. Harvest rainwater through the alulod (gutter) and use the water collected for your essential needs.
Get the point?
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Junking junk food in school canteens
Dear Consumerline,
How about banning junk food in the school canteen? This will be just in time for the opening of classes in June. Some school canteens think that there’s not much profit if they just sell cooked food. Junk food is more attractive or salable to students. But this is done at the expense of the students’ health. Junk foods are high in MSG and salt contents, even if some say in their labels that they’re “fortified with vitamins.” The Department of Health should wage a serious campaign vs. junk food in school canteens. — EILEEN YVONNE VELASCO
There was a time when our baon to school consisted simply of two hard-boiled eggs or maybe two bananas (latundan or lacatan) or pan de sal with margarine or Lily’s peanut butter or matamis na bao. Chips and the so-called junk foods were unheard of. So, at recesstime, we eagerly lined up for freshly made sandwiches, banana-cue or turon or camote-cue at the school canteen. And although there were soft drinks, we preferred quenching our thirst with a cold bottle of Choco Vim, which contributed to our daily milk requirement as growing kids.
Coming home from school with grumbling stomachs, it warmed our hearts to find something hot and freshly cooked waiting for us on the dining table — maybe some fried camote or bananas, boiled gabi or boiled peanuts or hotcakes that did not come from an instant hotcake mix box. Everything was painstakingly but lovingly made from scratch by our mother, sometimes with a little help from her girls, the future homemakers. We cooked our own burgers from homemade patties and even fried our own french fries. We even made our own halo-halo and polvoron at home. Ah, those were the days!
Bringing back those delicious days long gone, enterprising housewife and mother Ofel Panganiban has come up with alternative healthy recipes for kids that mothers can try at home.
Pink Lady
2 bunches camote tops (violet variety)
3/4 cup brown sugar
9 pcs. calamansi (large size)
14 cups water
Fresh pineapple juice (optional)
Boil water for about five minutes. Add the clean camote tops to the boiling water and let it soak for another 5 minutes. Cover for 1 minute and strain.
Once water is already cold, add sugar and calamansi juice. Stir in fresh pineapple juice for added taste. Serve with ice. Makes 13 servings
Avo-Pan Herbal Drinks
20 pcs. pandan leaves
1-1/2 kilo wash sugar
10 pcs. young avocado leaves/half mature
20 cups water
Boil water in a casserole. Wash the avocado and pandan leaves. Add the avocado leaves when the water starts boiling and cover for five minutes. After five minutes, remove the leaves and add the pandan leaves. Cover and let boil for another 10 minutes, then remove the leaves.
In another casserole, boil five cups of water. Once boiling, add the sugar and let it boil till syrupy. Let cool and strain before serving. Serve with ice. Makes 30 servings.
Tamarind Juice
1 kilo tamarind (skinless)
2 — 2-1/2 k. brown sugar
10 pcs. large calamansi (juice) or 2 lemons
4-6 liters water
Wash the tamarind in running water. After washing, mash in a big basin to get the juice. Set aside the juice in a clean container(s). Boil 1 liter of water, add sugar, and stir until dissolved and syrupy. Set aside and extract the juice of the lemon or calamansi. Add juice to tamarind juice and syrup, and serve with ice.
Banana Burger
4 cups boiled ripe saba peelings
1/2 cup finely chopped onions
3 tbsps. finely crushed garlic
2 pcs. well-beaten eggs
4 tbsps. cornstarch
2 tbsps. ground black pepper
3 tbsps. oyster sauce
1 pc. beef cube and oil for frying
Chop the saba peelings very finely like ground meat. Add and mix the other ingredients. Form mixture into patties. Fry patties in hot oil until golden brown. Serve with buns or hot pan de sal and banana catsup.
2 cups sapal ng niyog (pre-steamed)
1 beef cube
5 tbsps. oyster sauce
2 eggs
2 pcs. medium-size grated sweet potato
3 tbsps. cornstarch
1/4 tsp. ground pepper
1/2 cup finely chopped onion
1 whole head finely chopped/ground garlic
oil for frying
Steam coco discard (sapal) for 30 minutes. After 30 minutes, mix the rest of the ingredients and form into patties. Fry in hot oil until golden brown. Serve with bread (hot pan de sal or buns).
Polvoron Moringa Special
4 cups cake flour
2 cups milk powder (Alaska/Anchor)
2 cups wash sugar
1 cup melted butter/margarine
1/8 tsp. iodized salt
2 tbsps. moringa powder (malunggay leaves)
Toast flour until slightly brown while constantly stirring and not letting the flour to burn. After toasting the flour, add moringa powder and toast for another five minutes. Then set aside to cool.
Once cooled, add the rest of the ingredients, making sure that the moringa powder is evenly mixed. Mold polvoron in molder and wrap using Japanese paper.
Moringa Rice Cake
4 cups all purpose flour
3 beaten eggs
3-1/2 cups water
2-1/2 cups white sugar
3 tbsps. baking powder
1 tbsp. moringa powder (malunggay leaves)
Mix flour, sugar, and baking powder. In a separate bowl, beat eggs and add water, then the flour mixture. After mixing, add the moringa powder and strain for fine texture. Pour into molders. If you will use a baking pan, grease pan and line it with banana leaves. Steam mixture for about 15-20 minutes till the center is fully cooked. For a special rice cake, top it with sliced or grated cheese or salted egg before steaming.
2 cups flour or rice flour
1/2 cup sapal ng niyog
1/2 tbsp. salt
3 cups water
1 shrimp cube (flavoring)
Steam the desiccated meat for 15 minutes. After steaming, mix all the ingredients in a large bowl. Pour in greased trays and have it dried in a drier 60-65°C or under the heat of the sun. Once dried up, pack in plastic containers. Deep-fry kropeck in hot oil when cooking.
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