Water Usage

In the past month or so the ALS ice bucket challenge has become an exceedingly popular social media trend and has raised over 80 million dollars when I last checked on it. Interestingly enough, the social media backlash for the "waste" of water poured over the applicants heads during the challenge has become super popular as well. I understand that wasting water is a large issue facing not only our country, but also the world and that we should not take it lightly. I would love for people to be as ardent about actual water conservation as they seem to be when bashing the ice bucket challenge.

The majority of ice bucket videos I have seen have been using a bucket with maybe 5-10 gallons of water in it. Being generous I'll say each challenge used 20 gallons of water. Now, granted that sounds like a lot of water, especially when you multiply that by the million odd videos posted to Youtube and Facebook, but let's put that number in perspective.

Within water advocacy there is a term called virtual water. Virtual water is the total amount of water used in the production of certain goods. For example, a pair of jeans is made from cotton, which requires water to grow. It also requires dye to applied and if they are fancy jeans, they have been washed to wear them down to be comfortable. All of these things require water. How much water you ask? An average pair of jeans costs 8,000 liters (2,113 gallons) of water. A cotton t-shirt costs 2,500 liters (300 gallons). How many pairs of jeans do you have in your closet at the moment, how about how many t-shirts?

Even the food we eat has a high water cost that you might not be aware of. Pork has a virtual water cost of 5,990 liters per kilogram (717.7 gallons per pound). Beef has a virtual water cost of 15,400 liters per kilogram (1,845 gallons per pound). How often do you eat beef or pork? In contrast a cucumber has a virtual water cost of 240 liters per kilogram (28.7 gallons per pound).

I do not mean to make anyone feel guilty about their water consumption, everyone needs clothes and everyone needs to eat. I am simply trying to make a point about the scale of the issue that water conservation really is. Each year we use trillions of liters of water to feed and clothe ourselves, water that is not being replaced in the aquifers from whence it came. But we as Americans can make a difference. If everyone gets together and actually work towards a solution, we can easily achieve it.

 If you want to conserve water do not leave the faucet on when you brush your teeth. Take shorter showers, or use a low flow shower head. Don't water your yard as often and don't dump harmful chemicals into the sewers. Forget about complaining on Facebook about the ice bucket challenge and next time you're at the store don't buy that new shirt or pair of jeans or, instead of buying a pound of ground beef, make a vegetarian meal. You can easily save thousands of liters of water with one simple decision, and think about that decision multiplied by the thousands of people who have spoken out for water conservation we'll be on the right path to sustainability.

If you want to learn more about virtual water this is a very good website.

Also you can donate to ALS victims at www.alsa.org.

If you feel so inclined, you can also donate money to help secure access to clean drinking water for people in need here.