Water Use

* Rounded up to the nearest gallon.

Itemized Household Usage:

Shower & bath: 40 gallons

Toilet: 12 gallons

Sink: 20 gallons

Dishes by hand: 20 gallons

Dishwasher: 5 gallons

Laundry: 12 gallons

Lawn: 395 gallons

Outside & pool: 0 gallons

Daily: 504 gallons

Weekly: 3,528 gallons

Monthly: 14,112 gallons

Yearly: 183,456 gallons

I have to begin this blog by saying that I'm very surprised by how much water my household uses, especially in respect to lawn irrigation. My family has always leaned towards conservation, the only exception being the amount that we water our lawn. Unfortunately, we live in a deed-restricted community, so that means that one can't simply allow their lawn to dry up and die in the name of conservation. Perhaps we can look into cutting back the number of times that we water per week. I will say though that we make sure to turn our sprinkler system off when it has been raining recently, so this is one  big positive step that we're taking to conserve water. 

Water is used for so many different tasks worldwide. The agricultural industry has a natural reliance on water, and much of our nation's food production is reliant upon stable access to clean irrigation water. Water is also used for energy generation in both hydroelectric and nuclear energy plants. It is so essential not just for the daily life processes of humans but we have also developed technology that is similarly reliant on the availability of water. It's hard to imagine anything other than a shortage would truly get people to consider more environmentally-conscious ways to treat and use their water. I think that these issues are likely going to be some of the most important that our planet faces in the near future, and if we don't start examining and thinking of ways that we could prevent such waste of water, we may approach a point of no return with disastrous consequences.