Understanding reasons for conserving water

For most of us water is a commodity that we take for granted. Without thinking we use water to wash ourselves, clean our teeth, flush our toilets, wash our clothes, keep our homes clean, water our garden, cook our food and use in our drinks. Water is something that we could not possibly imagine being without and we object when authorities restrict our usage by imposing hose pipe bans etc.  In many respects we are casual about water and as a consequence we waste tons of it every day. After all, we argue, we have a lot of rain, particularly in the UK and we know that a large proportion of the earth’s surface is covered in water. So why should there be a problem in the future?

The reasons why we need to educate ourselves and think more about our water usage is threefold. Firstly according to the USGS Water Science School only three percent of the planets water is fresh water and only one percent is available for drinking. Secondly we know that there has been a change in weather patterns and that global warming is having an impact upon water supplies, hence the needs for hose pipe bans in the UK. Thirdly and perhaps the most sobering fact is that the water supply to our earth has not increased since time began and if we take into consideration the enormous increase in population plus industrialisation it is only common sense to assume that this precious commodity is likely to become scarce and expensive in the future if we do not take steps to conserve it.

Although we can argue that governments and large companies need to take control of this pending disaster, we as individuals can also have an impact on the future by educating our children and thinking more about our water usage.

There are hundred’s of simple ways that we can conserve water for example:

Turn off the tap when cleaning your teeth.

Avoid leaving the tap running, for example when rinsing dishes or washing fruit and vegetable.Use a bowl.

Take a shower rather than a bath and use a water efficient shower head.

Collect rain water to use on your garden.

Only use washing machines and dish washers containing a full load.

Check pipes for leaks and repair

Use dripper systems in your garden to water flowers and vegetables.

Ensure that lawn sprinklers are watering the grass and not the drive.

Leave a bottle of water in the fridge rather than running the tap  each time you want a drink

Speak to your children’s school to encourage teachers to educate children about water usage.

Collect rain water to use on your garden.

These are just a few ideas and if we consider that by turning our taps off when cleaning our teeth we can save approximately eight gallons of water a day then it makes sense to at least try.

 We all want future generations to enjoy what we have and by conserving water today we are least making an effort to ensure that affordable water will still be available in the future.