They say that humans can last three weeks without food but won’t survive 3 days without water. At least 60% of the human body is made up of water and we don’t have to worry about getting thirsty when this Earth is basically 71% water; endless water supply, right? Wrong! Water is a limited resource that human beings must not take for granted. Out of that 71% of water, only about 1% of water is available for human use and the rest are either saltwater, frozen in the polar caps, or just simply inaccessible for us to use. And today, not everyone has the same access to water; developed countries having more water supply that those from developing ones. Conserving water matters as it wouldn’t only affect your household or your community but the rest of the world too!
Every household all around the world uses water for everyday life—drinking water, showering, gardening, washing—and you can imaging the amount of water an average person consumes in a day; in Australia, being the second-highest water consumers in the world, an average person consumes about 470 liters of water in just a single day.
USA, of course, is the biggest water consumer on Earth. A single, average American uses about 600 liters of water a day just for themselves. Imagine multiplying that 600 to the whole American population. Italy, Japan, Norway, Mexico, and Spain are countries that have an average person use about more than 300 liters of water per day, while an average Austrian consumes 230 liters in a day. These are developed countries—economically progressive; resources almost available anywhere. However, developing parts of the world—countries such as Uganda, Rwanda, and Haiti—have an average person use only 2-15 liters of water a day. Water usage across the globe varies depending on the country you are in; and seeing the huge difference, it is understood that we must be responsible enough to consume water wisely.
How, you say, is your water usage affecting those from the far away countries? You see, watersheds connects our lands. Watersheds are precipitation collectors and is basically where water from rainfall and streams are drained to outlets such as bays, and stream channel, collecting, storing, and putting them for basic human water usage (i.e. drinking, household, irrigations, etc.). Watersheds are everywhere; they don’t have boundaries nor can they be politicized. Each of these watersheds affects each other and if your community uses more water than from other areas, the distribution from the watershed will surely be unequal and unfair.
Yes, your simple actions can be a huge help to conserving water for other people who need them: Simply turning of your tap while you brush your teeth would help; turning of the shower while you shampoo your hair or while you lather your body with soap; keeping tab on how regular you wash your car, water your lawn or do the laundry. Check your plumbing system for leaking pipes as leaking water is truly wasted water. You can also have a new toilet installed, one that doesn’t require 26 liters just for flushing. Restricting your water usage can be a huge adjustment to the household but it would be a great help to rest of the world. People everywhere must start taking part in water conservation as time will come, those people fighting over oil today would soon be fighting over clean water. Let’s not wait for that nightmare to happen before we start taking action. Save water today!
For toilet installments or checking for leaking pipes, Ekorp plumbing is here to help you in your milestone of conserving water. Just call us at 0402 706 454 or 02 8667 554. Or email us here for inquiries about our other services.