[Piwoslaw]

So far I've put a half-liter bottle in the tank and have tweeked the partial/full flush to be as low as 2.9/5.5 liters. This, and the rain barrels being back in action after winter, should direct our water consumption back on a declining course (it's around 220 liters/day right now).

Slightly off topic: There was an article in today's newspaper about global water shortages, and I found out that the average Canadian uses 329 liters of water per day (for cooking, washing, etc., not including water needed to produce goods and food), while the average French household uses half the water of its Canadian counterpart. But water in Canada is four times cheaper than in France, so cheap in fact that "half of the Canadians polled didn't know how much they were paying for water", as the newspaper put it.

On the other hand, over 150 million people in third world countries have access to less than 100 liters per day, and over 1 billion have periodical problems with lack of water (drought at least 1 month per year). The problem will only get worse since global warming will make dry places even drier (most third world countries), plus by the year 2050 there will be an additional 3 billion people living in third world cities (cities are where water problems are the most pronounced).

All the more reason to get into the habit of saving...