The earth is full of water. In fact, nearly 71% of the earth is water. Without water, there would be no human life on earth, so it’s safe to say that water is one of the most important, if not the most important, elements of our planet. Even though nearly the entire earth is made of water, only 3% of the world’s water is freshwater and only 0.5% is suitable for drinking. When you look at it that way, all of the sudden our water supply seems much more scarce. With such a small percentage available for consumption, the world can’t afford to have people wasting clean water for no reason. We are all capable of making slight changes to our lifestyle to save water. Committing yourself to saving even a quarter of your water usage each day can make a positive impact on the world.

First of all, water you save is water that can be used for something else — its like money in this way. Communities across America have their own supply for drinking water. When people of that community are conservative with this water, it can be used to fuel other important aspects of the community, like hospitals, firefighters, restaurants, and gyms. So much of a community runs through water, so if everybody collectively limits their water usage, there is more water available for services like these to run properly.

Water is a finite resource on earth. Although it can be recycled through the water cycle, the water that returns to earth is never necessarily in the same spot or amount as it was before. This, along with our continuous population growth, makes certain communities more susceptible to a drought or water shortage. In the case of a water shortage, a community that conserves water more effectively will be less impacted by the shortage. Water shortages can be detrimental to communities, and the first step to counteracting their effects is to make water conservation a part of daily life.

Water conservation also indirectly helps the environment by reducing the energy needed to process and deliver it to where its needed. When a community is running low on water, a water treatment plant needs to process clean water and send it to the community that needs it. This action requires energy and fuel resources, and thus causes increased pollution and less available resources. Water processors should only do this when needed, so in order to limit this pollution and use of resources, communities need to conserve the water that they have.

In order to conserve water effectively, it requires both effort and forethought. It’s easy to think that one person’s conservation actions will have no effect on overall water supply, but every bit helps. Establishing habits like taking shorter showers and making sure faucets are turned off can make a large impact in the long run.

Make these changes! Your community, along with the rest of the world, will thank you.