For my fifth civic issues post, I will be discussing water conservation. Water conservation comes from action from multiple different parties, such as industrial plants, agricultural processes, and human use for daily tasks. While water could be conserved more properly in agricultural settings, in this blog, I will be specifically discussing water conservation from an individual person’s perspective and how each person could play a role in improving climate change. For more information about agricultural water conservation practices, see this Penn State site that details some water waste prevention techniques.
An Introduction to Water Waste
Water waste refers to all sorts of different water uses, beyond what one might usually expect. Every toilet flush, teeth brush, and coffee pot/Keurig preparation uses water, not to mention regular sink uses, dishwashers, and washing machines are water uses. According to Greenly, a blog focused on ecology news in the U.S., the average America family wastes up to 9,400 gallons of water waste each year. The U.S. is one of the most plentiful countries in the world when it comes to fresh water, and it is believed that much of the water waste that occurs in the U.S. is due to the mindset of American’s that there will always be enough fresh water to go around. However, this is not the case, as there is water scarcity in numerous areas of the world, and with excessive water usage, the United States could have a scare water supply in future generations.
Negative Consequences of Excessive Water Usage
One of the most obvious consequences of wasting water is that it causes a depletion of freshwater resources, which could lead to some regions not having enough drinking water, agricultural water, and fresh water needed for other purposes. Since water is so highly used in agricultural settings, wasting water today in households could result in lack of agricultural resources such as food for future generations. In addition, more water means more energy used to pump and distribute it, which ultimately results in higher greenhouse gas emissions and higher energy consumption.
The Effectiveness of Water Conservation and What it Entails
Much of water waste comes from running water in a household unnecessarily, such as running the dishwasher when it is not entirely full or not turning off the water while brushing teeth or washing the dishes. Almost 300 gallons of water could be saved by only running the dishwasher when it is full, and almost 6,000 gallons of water could be saved by turning the faucet off during different actions. If many American households were to reduce their water consumption through simple daily tasks such as running the dishwasher and brushing their teeth, there could be a substantial reduction in energy usage and each person’s carbon footprint would be reduced.
While the bulk of water usage does come from agricultural processes, we still need those processes in order to survive, so we would have to take matters into our own hands to reduce our individual water usage to maximize the freshwater Earth has and do our part in helping the environment. If many different Americans were to take part in water conservation within their household, it could be an effective strategy to improve climate change through the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions.
Wow! This was a very interesting blog. I didn’t realize the US was on track to have a scarce fresh water supply within the next few generations. I think you’re right that because the US has so much fresh water, there’s a mindset that fresh water is abundant and therefore people treat it as such.
After reading this post, I have more appreciation for having access to clean water daily, and never having to worry about water scarcity. Wasting water can be something that we don’t even realize we are contributing to, so thank you for bringing it into light. Furthermore, I agree that us Americans need to work together to contribute to decreasing the water usage to better the health of our planet.