Conserving water is important because we only have so much. The amount of water on Earth today is the same as when the Earth was formed. That means the water from your faucet could contain molecules that dinosaurs drank!
About 70% of the Earth’s surface is covered by water, but only about 1% of the water on Earth is usable freshwater. The rest is found in oceans and glaciers and is unavailable for use by humans.
The Egyptians were the first people to record methods for treating water. These records date back more than 1,500 years to 400 A.D. They indicate that the most common ways of cleaning water were by boiling it over a fire, heating it in the sun, or by dipping a heated piece of iron into it. Filtering boiling water through sand and gravel and then allowing it to cool was another common treatment method.
Water makes up 83% of our blood, 70% of our brain, and 90% of our lungs. Overall, our bodies are 70% water.
The average price of water in the United States is about $1.50 for 1,000 gallons. At that price, a gallon of water costs less than one penny.
Water regulates the Earth’s temperature. It also regulates the temperature of the human body, carries nutrients and oxygen to cells, cushions joints, protects organs and tissues, and removes wastes.
A person can live about a month without food, but only about a week without water.
Here are a few tips to get you thinking and to help conserve our precious water supplies.
When you give your pet fresh water, or when cleaning out the fish tank, don’t throw the old water down the drain! Use it to water a plant!
Just five drips per minute from a leaky faucet can waste 263 gallons in one year.
The average person uses about 100 gallons of water in a day.
Put food coloring in the toilet tank. If it seeps into the bowl, there is a leak. Leaky toilets waste up to 200 gallons of water per day – the same as flushing a toilet more than 50 times!
Don’t use the toilet to dispose of tissues or other trash. Every flush uses 3.5 to 7 gallons of water.
Pick up litter in your neighborhood and on your school grounds – everything eventually ends up in a water body.
Shorten each shower by five minutes – you’ll save up to 25 gallons of water per shower.
Collect water that runs until the shower gets hot, and use it to water plants.
You can save 18 gallons of water every time you take a bath by only filling your bathtub halfway.
If you could fill a bucket with the world’s water, only a teaspoonful would be drinkable.
Want a glass of cold water? Keep water in the fridge to get it cold, instead of running the tap.
Turn off the water while you brush your teeth and save 4 gallons a minute. That’s 200 gallons a week for a family of four.
Garbage disposals use one gallon of water every minute! Composting is a much better way to get rid of old food scraps, and it makes healthy soil in the process.
Want to make a hot drink or a tasty meal? Running hot water out of the kitchen tap not only wastes water; it can be dangerous to your health if it’s coming from lead pipes. Heat cold water on the stove instead.
Hate washing the dishes? Using a dishwasher isn’t just easy, it saves water, too. The average dishwasher uses 10 gallons of water per load, while washing dishes by hand can use up to 16 gallons. Newer dishwashers even use as little as 5 gallons per load!
About 75% of a living tree is made up of water.
It takes 150 gallons of water just to grow and make one loaf of bread!
If you accidentally drop ice cubes when filling your glass from the freezer, don’t throw them in the sink. Drop them in a house plant instead.