Wasting Water

During an Ecology of Eden presentation, an important point was brought up. We as Americans rely on fresh water to be available at all times. This is a privilege that we often do not think about or consider. I wanted to know more about just how much water we are using, so I did some research. On average, Americans use 80-100 gallons of water a day. That puts us at number one for the most water consumption per capita in the world. We are using more than double the water per capita than India. Water is used individually for a bunch of different activities. Just flushing an average toilet uses three gallons of water. Washing clothes in a washing machine uses around twenty-five gallons of water. Washing dishes by hand is calculated to be up to twenty-seven gallons of water, depending on how fast you are. A shower can use around five gallons of water a minute. So, a ten-minute shower could use fifty gallons. Our consumption of water cannot continue like this. Even though we are using this much water, there is still about one-sixth of people who do not have access to clean water. If people care about each other, they should be more cautious with how they use their water and how much of it they use. It is not the lack of water that is the problem, but it is the heavy use of it by select people while other hardly have any.