MNN - Mother Nature Network

Although I’d rather just go with an old 1-liter Diet Coke bottle in my toilet tank and a Waterpebble in the shower to conserve water around the house, London-based, sustainability-minded designer Yan Lu takes a much different approach … a method that involves the livelihood of your pet goldfish. Yep, you read that right.

 

Enter the Poor Little Fishbowl Sink, a combination sink/goldfish habitat concept where the more water you drain from the tap, the less water your pet has to swim around in, putting Gilly the Goldfish at risk of going belly up. Harrowing!

 

Okay, here’s the thing: Lu clarifies that “while using, the level of water in the bowl gradually falls (but does not actually drain out); it will go back to the same level once the water stops running. As well, the water from the tap is pure, as its pipeline does not connect to the bowl.” So there you go — you’re not actually washing your hands in bacteria-filled goldfish water that’s being drained directly from the bowl nor will the water completely run out and kill your beloved pet. 

 

Still, I think Poor Little Fishbowl Sink, although not exactly practical and probably super stress-inducing for Mr. Fish, is a clever visual aid reminding us to curb our water-wasting ways, or, as Lu says, “an emotional way to persuade consumers to think about saving water, by making consumption tangible." What do you think?