Many people dismiss the idea that we need to conserve water. After all, it’s all around us in lakes, rivers, streams and the seas, in the rain and snow that falls from the sky.
But consider the following statistics:
- – 97% of the earth’s water is salty or undrinkable due to contamination of some sort
- – 2% is locked in ice caps or glaciers
- – That only leaves 1% of the world’s water that is available for human consumption of which only a small percentage is found above ground or in the air
- – We need water for everything from our bodies to crops and animals. We depend on it for all our needs, personal, business, manufacturing, and community.
- – Our water supply is threatened everyday by deforestation and runoff from industry and toxic pollution
- – To make the problem ever worse, Federal policies have recently proposed to relax Clean Water standards
- – According to Global Green, 1.2 billion people, or almost 1 in 5 people worldwide, are without access to safe drinking water.
- – And, out of 191 nations in the world, 10 nations share 65% of the world’s water resources.
In developed countries we tend to take water so for granted that we let it run freely from the tap while we brush our teeth or over-soak our yards when we carelessly forget to turn off the sprinkler while many countries across the world don’t even have the basic access to safe drinking water.
It’s time that we realize water is a precious resource, and its imperative that we stop wasting it.
There are many simple things We can do:
1. Conserve Water at Home
There are also many things you can do to conserve water in your daily routine. In the bathroom you can install a low-flow toilet (which can reduce waste by 20%) or place a toilet dam in your toilet. What’s a toilet dam? It can be something as simple as a half brick or a bottle placed in your toilet tank to cut down the amount of water used with each flushing.
For your shower, install a low-flow shower head. This can save up to 2.5 gallons (up to 9 litres) of water a minute! Think of taking shorter showers, some people even turn the water on to get themselves wet, turn it off to lather up, then turn it on again to rinse. If you have to take a bath, only fill it one-third full, just remember that showering does use less water than bathing.
Don’t leave the water running when brushing your teeth, shaving, or washing your face.
In the kitchen we can conserve water usage by pouring a pitcher of water, perhaps with a filtering system like Brita, and put it in the refrigerator if you like your water cold, this saves you from running the water to get it cold. Consider installing a instant water heater rather than running the water to get it hot.
Don’t be wasteful with water. Don’t let it run down the drain. Whenever possible, reuse water. Waste water can be used to water plants or your lawn, for instance. You can install a water recirculation device, which can save up to 16,500 gallons (62,000 litres) of water a year. That’s a lot of water to save!
And guess what else? This translates into cold, hard cash. Don’t overlook simple things.
2. Use Care with Storm Drains
Have you ever considered that anything that gets washed down a storm drain goes directly to local creeks, rivers, and streams, and eventually to the ocean? Think about it, when water from your hose washes over your yard or sidewalk or driveway, it is carrying pollution along with it. Things like fertilizer, pet waste, yard and grass clippings, paints, pesticides and motor oil can all impact our waterways through storm drains.
3. Make Wise Food-Buying Choices
Did you know that irrigation of agricultural crops accounts for more than 70% of freshwater consumed worldwide. That is a huge percentage, particularly in light of the fact that 1 in 5 people don’t have access to safe drinkable water.
Farmers have options. They can switch to drip irrigation systems, which will result in a water savings of 30 to 70% while increasing crop yields. You have options too. Seek out and support local and organic farmers through the farmers markets. Farming organically has a huge impact on preventing global warming because of the 28 most commonly used pesticides, 23 are carcinogenic and end up in our water supply.
This may surprise you but another simple thing to do is eat less meat. It takes up to 100 gallons (380 litres) of water to produce one quarter pound of meat. Yes, that burger you ate at lunch required 100 gallons of water to produce. As a comparison, one ton of beef needs 15,000 tons of water to produce while a ton of grain needs only 1,000 tons.
To recap, here’s some Water Conservation Action Steps
- - Be careful about what you let wash down storm drains
- - Recycle motor oil properly
- - Buy non-toxic alternatives to pesticides
- - Dispose of pet waste in the garbage
- - Plant native bushes and shrubs
- - Water your lawn responsibly
- - Install a low-flow toilet
- - Install a toilet dam
- - Avoid unnecessary flushing
- - Check for toilet leakage
- - Install a low-flow shower head
- - Take shorter showers; fill the bathtub only one-third full
- - Don’t leave the water running when brushing teeth or shaving
- - Put drinking water in the refrigerator rather than run the tap
- - Install an instant hot water heater
- - Instead of using the sink disposal, compost!
- - Only run the dishwasher when it is full
- - Buy an energy-saving front-loading washer
- - Don’t let water run down the drain
- - Buy a water recirculator
- - Check for leaky faucets
- - Install flow restrictors
- - Buy from farmer’s markets
- - Eat less meat
Any and all of those activities listed in this report will help. The only thing that won’t help is if you sit back and do nothing. There are way too many people all over the world who don’t know, don’t want to know or just don’t understand the severity of the problem. Now that you do, it’s up to you to take action. Whether you are 20 or 80 our future and the future of our children and grandchildren depend on it.
Read more about How You can Help Fight Global Warming and how you could even save money at: www.womenslifestylepublications.com/live-green/globalwarming/
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