Day 57: The One Thing We Can’t Live Without

I received an email yesterday from a reader who wanted to know what the big deal was about water conservation. My post refereed to billions of water being saved by recycling clothing.
So why do we need to save water and what can we do it about in our daily lives? It’s my GIVE of the day today and something we could all do everyday to give back to the world.

Day 57: Give 57

We never know the worth of water till the well is dry.  ~Thomas Fuller, Gnomologia, 1732

I remember a comment made by Oprah once while watching her show. She had just returned from a trip to Africa and she vowed she would never again leave the water running while brushing her teeth. The shocking reality of seeing so many people on the planet without clean water everyday made her realize how much we abuse the clean water that comes out of our tap everyday.

Here are a few shocking figures about water consumption and why we should value it as the precious commodity.

More than one billion people lack access to safe, clean drinking water and more than half of the hospital beds in the world are occupied by people afflicted with water-borne diseases.
More than 800 million are malnourished, primarily because there isn’t enough water to grow their food.
Fish and other freshwater species are among the most imperiled on the planet, in large part because of the ways that we have polluted and exploited their habitats.
It takes 140 litres of water to produce one cup of coffee; 3,000 litres to make a hamburger; and 8,000 litres to create a pair of leather shoes. All of these processes require a vast amount of water to grow crops, feed cows, or produce leather.
Every day, women and children in Africa walk a combined total of 109 million hours to get water.
The average American uses 159 gallons of water every day – more than 15 times the average person in the developing world.
A regular twice-a-day brushing, takes six gallons of water use per day. That’s 2190 gallons a year producing over 800 lbs of CO2

If you would like to learn more about your water daily water usage and foot print take a look at this water foot print calculator.

Here are a few things my son and I did today to save water and GIVE back to the planet. These are just a few of the things you can incorporate into your life daily and it will GIVE back to the planet and all the people that live on it on day at a time.

1) Turned the water off while brushing our teeth.

2) Had a short shower together verses a bath by himself.

3) Washed the dishes in a pre-poured sink rather than leaving the water running while washing the pots.

4) Did not turn on the dishwasher as we could still fit the mornings dishes in instead of running it twice.

For more ideas on ways you can incorporate conservation into your life take a look at this list of 100 ideas for conserving water.

Time Commitment: No more than I would have used to complete these jobs anyway

Cost: Saved money by using less water!