The gas crisis didn’t hit me very much. Fortunately, I didn’t feel any colder in my Kyiv apartment. Nevertheless, the idea of the whole economy suffering from the high (read: European) gas price made me think of alternative ways for Ukrainians to survive in the war with energy.
Many articles were published about how wasteful Ukrainian industry is. It consumes about 46 percent of the 60 billion cubic meters of gas burnt in the country each year. The population consumes another 27 percent. By comparison, Ukraine uses almost twice as much gas as Poland, a nation with 10 million fewer people. But I cannot influence our industrial policy. My question is: What can I as an individual do for my country?
In the Soviet Union no one really thought of saving water, gas, oil or electricity. All that was so cheap. Keeping the tap running was not considered as harmful. The Soviet era is long gone, but Ukrainians are still wasting resources as if they were eternal goods, which appear from air, like biblical manna.
According to statistics, every Ukrainian uses approximately 300 cubic meters of water per year, twice the per-capita consumption of Denmark. Yet the quality of water in Denmark is much better. It’s quality versus quantity. We always worked for the latter in the past, but do we want it now? My guess is that saving water can lead to saving money and getting better water filters for private households and maybe better water cleaning systems in the whole country. That might sound utopian, but it definitely worked for Denmark.
My second point is about saving electricity. There is a joke about an old man who was dying and was asked for his last wish. “A cup of tea with two spoons of sugar,” he answered. “Why exactly two spoons?” he was asked. “Because I always drank tea with one spoon at home to economize, and with 3 spoons when I was invited, because it was free. But I always preferred it with two.”
This joke actually describes attitude of most Ukrainians, at least those I know. At home people still try to save. But when it comes to the public places, here they waste. And why do people waste? Because they think that if it’s not your private property, using a bit too much of something won’t hit you back.
Just think about how many times you forgot to switch off lights in the toilet in your office or didn’t turn off the water in a cafe? It seems that a single person doesn’t make a difference. But if we add all those people together, how many liters of water, cubic meters of gas and kilowatts of electricity we could save, thus saving money for our country’s budget, thus for our own good?
People have to understand that public goods are not free. The more water, gas and electricity we waste outside our homes, the more money is needed to produce all these resources. Thus, most of the budget goes for producing and buying energy and not for pensions, medicine and social support of those in need.
In Austria I saw an advertisement, which said that upgrading a primary school’s lights with energy-saving bulbs may save up to 8,000 euros per year. How many schools are there in Kyiv? How much they can all save if they do some math with the number above? What could they buy with the saved money? How many liters of milk or juice they could provide for their kids?
But even when it comes to private homes, saving is a questionable issue. I’ve bought energy-saving bulbs for my home. But for most people I talked to, they are waste of money because they are much more expensive than the traditional ones. Nobody thinks about energy and thus money they save in a long term.
Take Germans as great examples of understanding how important energy-saving is for them, their country and their environment. In most houses I’ve been to, lights on the staircase turn on only after you push the button. After you switch the lights on, there are 30 seconds or so for you to get up to your flat before the lights switch off.
Check out your staircase. Probably it’s the same as mine: Lights are on the whole day and there is definitely no switch. The same with doors. In Germany, both elevator doors or doors in public transport open manually. In Kyiv, I haven’t seen a single non-automatic elevator door, not to mention our metro trams.
We might say that Germans are stupid. But then we will change our minds after remembering that Germany has one of the strongest economies, while Ukraine…well, you know where we are. So why do we still waste resources for no good reason?
When I planned on filling a bath tub with water, my German cousin looked at me as if I were crazy or a King Louis XIV at least (which is the same). She told me that she can afford only taking showers regularly. So I thought, if I can afford taking a bath almost every day when I am back in Ukraine, am I so rich? Or is there something wrong with my attitude as well as with country’s energy saving policy? You know the answer.
The same German cousin switches off the heating in her apartment when she’s at work. That can’t be done in my centrally heated Kyiv apartment. I was away for a month and my flat was still 25 degrees when I came back. I don’t even want to know how much money the whole apartment block would save if everybody agreed on having separate boilers. But nobody cares, of course. Nobody thinks about the future.
I hope that my article will raise public awareness. Even if only 20 people would buy one energy-saving bulb each after reading this, I would be proud, because I will know that I helped save 200 euros this year.
Finally, the next time you go to a public toilet, do your thing, use just enough paper, flush once, wash your hands, turn the water off, switch off the lights and leave with pride in your heart: Today YOU, in particular, did something for your country.
Alina Rudya is a staff writer and photographer for the Kyiv Post.
