Water is essential for life on Earth. However, it’s a precious asset and the waste of water is closely linked to climate change.
Sea water occupies 71% of the Earth’s surface, contitutes 97,5% of all water available on the planet but it’s salty!
The percentage of fresh water, compared to the total, is only 2,5. Of this amount, as much as 70% is trapped in glaciers and polar ice caps. Therefore only 30% of sweet water is really available, which is equivalent to 1,2% of the total.
Now think that this 1,2% of ALL water on Earth should be distributed to about 9 billion people. It is a really valuable asset that shouldn’t be wasted, right?
Now think that about 250 cubic kilometres of water are wasted every year, an amount equal to three times the volume of Lake Geneva.
This is really a lot of water.
But what does this have to do with climate change? If the glaciers melt we will have more water available, right? Sure! And then? After the glaciers have melted, after we have wasted so much water pretending nothing happened, after that, what happens? How will we survive? Oh no, of course, at that time we will no longer be there, it will be our children’s problem, why worry?
Because this problem was created by us and by those who came before. Do we want to do as they did and continue to damage the environment or do we want to act to avoid the worst?
In addition to being wasted, water is often also polluted. It would be enough to have a little attention in daily actions to make a difference. Now I will show you how you can help save water and the environment in 2 easy steps.
1_ How much water do you think we consume every time to brush our teeth? You will say 1 maybe 2 liters. Well, taking into account that 6 liters per minute are wasted by letting the water run, the correct answer is about 7,5 liters. If we close the tap and let the water run less we can save liters and liters of water. Turn off the taps!
2_ The water consumption for a bath can be up to four times higher than that for a shower. Obviously, it depends on the duration of the shower. However one bathtub container 100-160 liters of water, while a 5- minute shower does consume 75-90 liters and 3- minute shower 35-50 liters. If you want to save even more water, are on sale new taps that allow you to consume less water. So take showers!
Seeing is believing!
( Betto Chiara)