Water – A Precious Resource
It’s raining outside my office today, which got me thinking about water. We are fortunate to live in a place where water is not a scarce resource.
Though Georgia has experienced severe droughts, our access to clean drinking water and water for agricultural and industrial uses has rarely been at desperate levels.
Of all the water on this blue planet, only three percent is freshwater, only 0.05 percent is available for drinking, and only 0.006 percent of freshwater is available in rivers. And that water is not equally accessible.
Great societies have risen and fallen in regards to access to water. The ancient Egyptians dug irrigation ditches and engaged in commerce along the Nile, the Romans built the aqueducts, the Anasazi, great civilizations of cliff dwellers in the Southwest, disappeared altogether after springs dried up following a severe drought.
Wars and strife related to water also continue to plague our globe — fights between Egypt, Sudan and Ethiopia over the Nile, India and Pakistan over the Indus, and various conflicts in the Middle East over waterways such as the Jordan, Tigris and Euphrates.
The Dust Bowl years, brought on by droughts, between the 1930s and 1950s caused significant economic damage in the United States. Closer to home, the states of Georgia, Alabama and Florida have fought over water allocations in the Apalachicola/Chattahoochee/Flint basin.
Water is life-giving. It is necessary for human survival, and yet, we often take it for granted. Several places across the United States have experienced crises with water, such as in Flint, Michigan, with lead contamination, Odessa, Texas, with chromium in groundwater, and nitrates in well water in several rural communities.
We live in a community where water is seemingly plentiful, pumped to our homes from either our own wells or one of five local water authorities. Our water quality is tested, by law, by the water authorities, and we can also have our well water tested through our local extension office.
How can we conserve water?
One major way to conserve water is to fix leaks. Leaky faucets and toilets are two of the main causes of water lost to leaks.
Installing a low-flow shower head can conserve water as can taking showers instead of baths. Another option is to collect water in the shower using a bucket, and then using that bucket to water your household plants and gardens.
Front load washing machines are more energy efficient and use less water than top loaders.
Surprisingly, running the dishwasher, especially when it is full, is more water efficient than washing the dishes by hand.
Pools take thousands of gallons of water to fill, and if they are not covered, they can lose hundreds of gallons of water a month due to evaporation.
Washing a car can use up to 150 gallons of water, so washing less frequently can really help.
You can collect water in rain barrels or more sophisticated rain catchment devices and use the water for irrigation (non-potable uses).
With all the rain we’ve been getting recently, I realize it’s hard to think about being careful about our water use—there is no sense of urgency. However, all the water we’ll ever have access to is locked up in that 0.05%, and we can do our part to be good stewards of that precious resource.