Why is it that I have to travel to a third world country to find technology that could help deal with the water shortages we face here in California and much of the west? When it comes to toilets, it appears that we are a bit behind... no pun intended. While we here in the states are told to put bricks in our toilets to use less water, far more advanced countries like Egypt, for example, have toilets that can dispense more or less water depending on the task at hand. What a great concept? I wonder when this technology will hit us backwards people.

I had the privilege of using a toilet that, in addition to its regular flusher, had a 1/2 flush button, which allows the dispensing person to choose between using 3 or 6 liters of water to do away with the evidence. For those of us in the states, that comes out to either 0.79 or 1.59 gallons respectively per flush. What I find even more interesting, is that even our "low flow" toilets, which supposedly use less water to get the job done, actually use 1.6 gallons of water.

The funny thing is that although these 1/2 flush-capable toilets are made by Ideal Standard, a company that sells many toilets here in the states, they are not for sale here in the states. I cannot seem to find them anywhere. Now I am sure we can spend hours with conspiracy theories here, but instead, what I would like to do is figure out how to get some of these in California. If any of you have any thoughts I would love to hear it. Better yet, let me know where I can find one of these puppies.