Share your water- saving ideas — Californians will thank you

Californians — we need your water- saving ideas to get through the drought. Experts are lining up to tell us how to re- engineer our pipes, recycle our toilet water, restructure our utility rates and rewrite our water laws. But no one has more expertise in how you use water than you.

Send us your ideas, no matter how big — let’s haul an iceberg from Alaska, require every house, condo and apartment unit to have separate water meters — or how small — let’s steam our vegetables instead of boiling them.

Maybe you have ideas about organizing your community — town, homeowners association, condo board, apartment building, block — to swap watersaving ideas. Maybe you have thoughts about how your community can offer carrots — gift cards, tax credits, a parade in a water- saver’s honor — or sticks for those who aren’t taking our parched plight seriously.

Whatever your ideas, send them to us. We’ll publish the best in the Letters to the Editor. Photos are helpful, too. Be sure to include, along with your name, city and telephone number, answers to these four questions:

What’s the problem? For example, too many leaking toilets in your apartment building.

What’s the solution? Post a flyer in your apartment building that shows how to check if your toilet is a culprit and what to do about it. Offer a few details of how it works or might work.

How much water could you save? You may have statistics — my water bill showed I used 10 fewer gallons a day — or a best guess. Send it along.

How did you spread the word? I told my family; I talked about it at church; I posted on Facebook; I told The Chronicle.

Submit your ideas at www. sfgate. com/ submissions.