America’s population is growing rapidly but will there be enough fresh water to supply for this rapid rate? The world water supply is expected to leave at least 2 billion people to be facing water shortages by the year 2050. The shortage of fresh or drinkable water is a major problem across the world. Although the United States may not be facing many droughts except for in California, Americans tend to use way to much water on a yearly basis. It is estimated that every American uses approximately 500,000 gallons of water every year. The growing urbanization of the United States has played a major role in stopping the refilling of our underground aquifers. Florida had too much water almost 100 years ago, but with the increased number of dams and water diversions it has lead to cities popping up in locations that were once covered by water. Climate change has played a major role in the lack of water because the hotter temperatures lead to more water evaporation and a rising sea level which could push salt water into underground aquifers of fresh water and contaminate them. The government also projects that in the next five years around 36 states will witness water shortages because of population growth, rising temperatures, and the waste of water.
What can be done to stop the overuse of water in America?
Limit water use in your household
The amount of water the average person uses for everyday activities such as showers and laundry is about 80 to 100 gallons of water. There are many different ways to limit the use of water in your life. Baths are probably the worst when it comes to using water. Baths use on average 36 gallons of water, while showers use approximately 5 gallons a minute. Laundry is also a big waste of water. One load of laundry uses about 25 gallons of water per load. It is imperative to have a complete load of laundry when doing laundry or it is an extreme waste of water. The water wasted in the household is not a majority of the wasted water in the world but if everyone was to limit the amount of water they used then it would be a major impact on America’s upcoming water issues.
Thermo-Electric Power
Thermo-electric power is the use of steam to rotate turbine generators in order produce electricity. This a major water use in the United States as it uses about 45% of the amount of water used everyday. It uses approximately 160 billion gallons of water everyday in order to produce electricity. Although much of this water is salt water from the ocean there are places that use fresh water which is an extremely wasteful use of our drinking water. There are other ways to use water for producing energy like in dams that do not impact the quality of the fresh water such as the Thermo-Electric power stations.
Irrigation
Irrigation is one of the largest users of water in America. It is not possible to use salt water while watering plants as it ruins the crops. Irrigation uses about 115 billion gallons of water everyday. This is the second largest user of water in the United States and although it is important for our food supply, the amount of water can be reduced drastically by the new technologies used for watering crops. These technologies are quite expensive but implanting these new technologies can reduce the amount of money that farmers have to use watering their crops. I think it would be great for the government to offer a subsidy to people that implement this technologies in their farms because it will end up saving a majority of the wasted water used on irrigation.
Overall, the mass consumption of drinkable water has diminished the water supply across the world and especially in the United States. There are many ways to combat this issue and one of the major ones is making the public aware of how they over use fresh or drinkable water. The farming industry also needs to change its way of irrigation to reduce the amount of water they use while growing their crops. I hope this information was valuable on the overuse of water in the United States and how much water is used every day.
https://water.usgs.gov/watuse/wuto.html
https://water.usgs.gov/edu/wupt.html
www.nbcnews.com/id/21494919/ns/us_news-environment/t/crisis-feared-us-water-supplies-dry/