Installing New Water Efficient Fixtures

The consumption of water has been increasing in the last few decades. Most of the demand is caused by agricultural activities (BBC Features). Water needed for industrial purposes also drives up the demand. The world can learn about ways of conserving water from the countries that have initiated the measures and have become successful at it. Australia is considered as the most successful so far. Recycling, desalination, and harvesting rainwater are some of the solutions that can be applied to handle water shortages and create

Simple everyday things for Canadians to reduce water consumption would to fix leaky faucets, take shorter showers, and turn off the tap when they brush their teeth. Other courses of action for people would be to install toilets that use less water per flush and for the government, they could start to tax people for water usage. Some strategies to farmers would be to use drip irrigation systems, which deliver water directly to the plants roots.

Practicing good water saving techniques everyday will eventually save them gallons of water over time. Small acts one can do are turning off the tap when it is not in use, using the dishwasher instead of hand washing, not watering their lawns, and taking showers instead of baths. Friedman wrote in Refinery29.com, “The average bath uses 35 to 50 gallons of water, but a 10-minute shower with a low-flow showerhead only uses 25 gallons” (Friedman). Simply changing from baths to showers can create a huge difference in a person’s water usage. Everyday people can fight against the drought at

This will help save water because seventy-five percent of our water is used by farmers who use flood irrigation which is very wasteful. The second way to be resourceful is xeriscaping which is dry landscaping. By Xeriscaping water is being saved there’s no need to water your lawn or plants. Residential Californian’s spend about fifty percent of our water on watering the outdoors; that’s more than the rainfall we receive to be wasted on plants and lawns. The third way to be resourceful is desalinization technology which is by taking water out of the ocean and treating the water so there aren’t any impurities or salt in the water so it can be digested. This method is very costly and could also cause harm to the environment. Dozens of desalinization plants have been proposed to be built in California, but it isn’t cheap. The fourth way to be resourceful is by water recycling which is being used in parts of California; but isn’t used for drinking. However, the groundwater replenishment system has purifiers which make recycled water safe to drink. This is one of the best ideas on how to be resourceful because we already have groundwater replenishment systems in California. Water recycling is cheaper than desalinization and doesn’t cause harm to our environment. Lastly in being resourceful is conservation the average Californian household uses two-hundred gallons of water a day. Some good ways to conserve are: taking shorter showers, turning off water when not in

In the modern age of high-speed internet, self-driving cars and VR it’s easy to forget that some places in the world still don’t have fresh water, let alone plumbing. The average person uses between 80 and 100 gallons of water a day. If you drink the recommended 8 glasses per day that’s only 8 oz a glass, or 64 oz in total. Of those 80 to 100 gallons we use an average of 3 every time we flush the toilet, 5 gallons per minute in the shower, 36 gallons for a bath, 8-27 gallons while doing the dishes, 25 gallons for every load of laundry and another 2 gallons a minute if you’re doing any outdoor watering or filling a kiddy pool. By using a newer toilet, you can reduce the gallons per flush to about 1.6 gallons, and when using a water saving shower head you can reduce your use to about 2 gallons per minute. This may not seem like much of a difference, but it can make a big impact.

One more efficient way people could conserve would be by having their house inspected for leaks as they account for 16% of our water supply If farmers cut back by just 5% it would be equal to the 25% that the cities in California are required to conserve. The main goal of the city-wide water restrictions

People and businesses in a variety of situations and sectors are helping out with the cause. City residents are cutting a surprising amount of water. People are taking shorter showers, switching out inefficient appliances, not washing their cars, and letting their lawns go dry. Water agencies are actually offering rebates for people that switch out their innefieciant shower heads and toilets. People are also saving water through, “xeriscaping, which means “dry landscaping,” homeowners replace thirsty grass with drought-tolerant native plants like wildflowers and succulents” (Bryan Walsh, 2014). The Santa Clara Valley Water District is even paying residents $1 per square foot to xeriscape their properties. Another method for conserving water is water recycling. It’s a method to cleanup and reuse wastewater. In Orange county there’s a Groundwater Replenishment System (GRS) that cleans 70 million gallons of wastewater per day. More plants like this are planned to open up in the next couple of years. California restaurants aren’t even allowed to serve water unless the customer specifically asks for it. The biggest water saving technique is drip irrigation. Drip irrigation, “allows water to seep slowly into the roots of plants through a network of tubes and valves at the base of a plant” (Bryan Walsh, 2014). While this technique is significantly more efficient than sprinklers and flood irrigation, it’s still not as widespread because it costs a lot to install the necessary equipment. About 40 percent of farms still use flood irrigation. Californians are finding many different ways to save every drop they can, but a whole lot more can still be done to save the maximum amount of

this, or to have some type of strategy to lower the consumption of water use in

An article from Unwater.org and Home-Water-Works.org explains how about six to eight million people died each year due to not having access to clean drinking water. More evidence by Home-Water-Works.org shows that the average American used about 17.2 gallons of water in a given shower. Everyday 5.5 billion gallons of water is used and with that amount of water you can supply those eight million people for 1,380 days and that’s only the amount of water used in a shower per day in the U.S. Given the conservation of water and donation, we can save millions of people. If half a gallon is needed a day and with the donation of about $50 a day, and given half a gallon of water cost about .61 cents, we can save 164

Q1. Briefly describe the complexity of international water use, using the Rhine River or the Aral Sea as an example.

The United States agriculture makes up for more than two-thirds of our nations water footprint. That huge water footprint is primarily due to the tremendous amount of water needed to grow the grass and feed that a cow eats over its lifetime. This also includes the Cattles drinking water, cleaning, and processing. Those who are greatly affected by the lack of water in their states, particularly in the west coast, feel that the amount of water consumption needs to be reduced significantly. According to the National Geographic, “the water it takes to produce the average American diet alone—approximately 1,000 gallons per person per day. This is more than the global average water footprint of 900 gallons per person per day for diet, household

Today, one can conserve water. Water is an important part of our everyday lives and one should use it as efficiently as possible. There are a few ways to focus on conserving water. One step to take would be to change and update pipes, fixtures used, and operating systems so that the newest and easiest systems are being used. These new systems today tend to save and cut down the amount of water we use by just running water in the shower or by flushing the toilet. The other most practical way to conserve water would be to change one’s habits while using water. Instead of letting the shower run for two minutes before one actually getting in it, one should turn it on as they get in. Another conscious way of conserving water usage would be to do less loads and bigger loads of laundry so that not as much water is used as often. Some things are easier to conserve than others, but when a conscious effort is made there is a way to get it

We are in a drought, yet there is still so much water being wasted. To purify our drinking water in bottles, two gallons are being used for every one gallon!

Using less water also puts less pressure on our sewage treatment facilities, and uses less energy for water supply to the grid.

Every day Americans depend on public water systems to treat and deliver over 44 billion gallons of water to homes daily (“Importance of Clean Water”). However, Americans