Water Whys

Why, is water so important in our life?  

Imagine if you decided to not consume or use anything that was related to water, for just one day:

*The most obvious exclusion would be drinking water- none of that.  On average an adult consumes about two liters of water per day;

*you would also have to stop eating that day; water is required to grow anything that grows from the earth, i.e. agricultural products;

*you'll have to turn off those lights also; coal fired powered plants use about 2.2 billion gallons of water each year (UCS); 

*you would have to decide not to drive that day, because : the amount of water used to manufacture a new car, including new tires? 39,090 gallons per car;

*chicken wings? water is used during the growing/production of a chicken? 400 gallons;

*Water required for irrigation (2005 estimates)  128 billion gallons of water per day.

Water under the bridge

Clearly, water is a key resource to everything we do.  It is important that we are more conscious about making wise consumer choices to avoid over use, of this precious natural resource.  Since only three percent of our earth's water resources is considered drinkable water understanding its scarcity is something we should be educated about, not threatened by.  This simply means as you are making your purchases, go the extra mile and let manufactures know by sending them an e-mail, calling customer service or contacting their head quarters, that you would like to know what steps they are taking to conserve water in their manufacturing and distribution process.

 


Certain arms of the government such as WETT, are looking at the value of water to the environment not just the value of water to for human consumption.  On their web site they state that their research will "...enable an environmentally and economically more appropriate evaluation by including quantified environmental benefits..."  This is an approach of internalizing the externality (or realizing the cost in other than dolar terms).

Putting your best foot forward

With so much effort into understanding water that is taking place behind the scenes, it is understandable why we need to know much more about the impact of our own consumption habits and usage regarding water.  There is not doubt that human related activity has an impact on water quality and availability; so we can make a conscious choice to change the impact we have by reducing and reusing water whenever possible.

Water availability is a real concern and there are a lot of good sites you can visit to understand more about it including: the U.S. Geological Survey; American Water Use; WETT (Water Energy Technology Team) and the radio active risks associated with Japan and our fish consumption.  You might also want to visit the World Health Organization's site to look at impacts around the world.

Ending on a memorable note; in the United States, we consume about 346,000 million (that's "346 hundred-thousand-million" gallons of water each day.

Let water why(s) help you become water wise.  It is a global issue, but the change begins with you.  

Happy drinking!