We all know that baths take a ton of water, I mean you literally have to fill up a tub, and even the smallest one is pretty big. Plus, you don’t need baths, plenty of people only have a shower in their house and they’re fine, actually, I’d wager only a minority of people in the world, mostly Westerners, even have access to a personal bathtub.
So what do you think about taking baths (in the Western style where you drain the water after each user, not talking about public baths or hot tubs)? Do you think it’s fine occasionally in order to relax? Or do you think the massive water usage is never justified? Going further, do you think new houses should be built without bathtubs, only showers?
I have limited my water consumption (annual “allowance”), which I already set to about 1/3 of the average.
If I have some budget left, I can treat myself to a hot bath, maybe once or twice a year. Nothing cures aching joints like a bath with some Benzyl nicotinate added 🙂
The rest of the time: (almost) cold showers with as little water consumption as possible.
I think you’re forgetting that young children can’t take showers and need a bath tub.
Actually, most apartments in China where I was born didn’t have baths, only showers. The easiest solution was to buy a child bathing tub, which is about a quarter or fifth the size of a standard North American bathtub, and put that in the shower stall. Also uses way less water for children since the tub has a smaller volume to begin with.
I view it as the luxury it is. Something to be enjoyed occasionally to pamper myself. I have a bath maybe a handful of times a year since I’ve moved from spaces that only had showers. It’s certainly wasteful of water and requires more preparation, so I usually can’t make enough time for it and would rather not waste the water.
Personally, I never use a bathtub for various reasons (an important one being environmental reasons), but I’d like to note here that in some places, like Japan, people take turns bathing in the same bathtub without changing the water, which already shows that a bath for a single person as opposed to a shower should be considered a luxury & certainly not be taken for granted.
In case you had to choose between a bath with used water or a freshwater shower, I’d much prefer the latter. Plus in most cases, it’s also cleaner.
However, if you really enjoy taking baths in your own private bathtub, it should be fine as long as you don’t do it too often while remembering that water shortage is increasingly becoming a problem in many regions of the world.
