Yesterday I wrote about individualism and mentioned that I noticed a certain attitude in the USA which made me think that many people there do not think a lot about their environment and the people around them. When talking to our friend Iris once, who is working in an office for the environment in the department for water, she told us that America also is the country with the highest amount of average water consumption per person.
When she said this, I remembered how we once noticed in an apartment that the tab of the bathtub was running. It was not leaking and only dripping every once in a while. No, it was continuously running in a steady flow. It was just open intentionally. The owner explained us it was running always so that the cat could drink. When we asked about the bill for water, we were told that it was a flat rate, so it didn’t matter how much water was used in that apartment, the cost would not increase.
There are hundreds of such examples from broken taps that are running to people who wash their cars every day in their courtyard. Again, this is not only reduced to America, people are careless about their water consumption in many countries in which it is taken for granted that there is always enough water in the water pipes.
I did however look at statistics online and found that America is the number one of water consumers with an average of 575 liters or 152 US gallons per person per day. I obviously compared it to the figures for Germany, which uses 193 liters or 51 gallons, and India which has an average use of 135 liters or about 36 gallons per person per day. There are obviously many countries that use less water, including all those African countries where water is simply so rare that most people do not have access to a lot of liters per day.
There are so many problems regarding water, the access and availability for rural population and also the question whether it is clean enough to be drinking water. Seeing all this and thinking of those who are thirsty and die of dehydration, we have to rethink our water spending habits. Water is precious. It is life. Don’t waste it! Think broader and wider, see that the water that you carelessly let flow down the drain without even thinking means life to someone else.
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Not wasting water carelessly is important. Another big issue is the amount of water needed to produce food or other things. If the following source is correct it takes 1.600 liters of water to produce 1 kg wheat bread, but 15.400 liters to produce 1 kg beef. So one can also save huge amounts of water by consuming the right goods! http://www.waterfootprint.org/
In Ahmedabad (gujarat) two third of water supply nis used up by 15% population residing in affluent societies. ..I wonder why there are no ‘Water Wars’ as yet!!
This is so sad!!! I really hope that more awareness about these kinds of statistics can spread across the whole country… There seems to be lots of progress and awareness on the coasts…but not as much in the middle of this massive country. If people only realized how bad this problem is, I think they would think twice about leaving the water running for their cat. 🙁