Water a Wonderful World

By RyalJames Weldon-Carroll
Thirsty? Get some water from the fridge or the tap. Need to get clean? Go take a
shower. Do your plants look thirsty? Why don't you go turn on the sprinklers and give them
something to drink. As Americans, we use an enormous amount of water. Don’t believe me?
Count all of the times you’ve turned on the tap this week, how many showers have you taken,
and how many times have you gotten a glass of water. The average American uses about 176
gallons of water a day. Did you know the average African family uses 5 gallons of water a day?
Unlike our population, the amount of water on our planet is not increasing. The demand for
water is steadily increasing but the supply is staying the same. And if you know anything about
economics you know that this isn’t going to last. I would like to analyze how much water I use
and what I can do to decrease this number.
I found that I use about 60.9 gallons of water daily, meaning I use 426.3 gal weekly, and
22,167.6 gallons yearly; excluding the dishwasher and washing machine. When including the
dishwasher and the washing machine I use 456.5 gallons of water weekly and 23,714.6 gallons
of water per year. The average American uses about 1232 gallons of water weekly and 64,064
gallons of water yearly. When compared to the national average, I don’t use that much water but
when compared to the average water usage of an entire family in Africa who uses 1820 gallons
of water a year, I use an enormous amount of water. The majority of the water that I use on a
daily basis goes to my shower. I think that the main reason that my shower uses most of the
water is that I take showers daily as well as showers use a large amount of water. The average
shower uses about 7 gallons of water minute. The minority of the water that I use on a daily
basis goes to my water bottle. The reason that I think my water bottle uses the least amount of
water compared to everything else is that my water bottle does not waste any water and I only
drink so much water. One reason that I use so much less water is that I don’t use sprinklers or a
garden hose. Another reason that I use less water then the average American is because I take
shorter showers.
One way that I could conserve water would be to take a shorter shower daily. If I were to
shorten my shower time by just one minute I could conserve about 7 gallons of water daily, 49
gallons of water weekly, and 2548 gallons of water per year. Another way that I could conserve
water would be to try to make the loads for my washing machine larger in hopes of decreasing
the amount I have to use the washing machine by one or more loads. If I could use the washing
machine just one time less per week than I could save 5.75 gallons weekly and 299 gallons
yearly. One final way that I could conserve water would be to replace any appliances that break
with high-efficiency appliances. On average high-efficiency appliances use less than half of the
water that normal appliances use. If I were to implement the first two ways to conserve water
that I listed, I could reduce my water usage by 54.75 gallons weekly and 2847 gallons yearly,
reducing my water usage to 401.75 gallons weekly and 20,891 gallons yearly. Shortening my
shower and increasing the load size for my washing machine are both realistic ways for me to
decrease my water consumption. These both will not cost me money and things that I can begin
doing now. These are also easy because they will take some getting used to, but after a few
weeks, I think that they will become a habit and allow me to save water. Replacing my
appliances with high-efficiency appliances is realistic but it is something that I cannot do now. It
would be unrealistic for me to replace any appliances now, but I can wait for one of my
appliances to break and then replace it. Doing that will make replacing appliances much more
realistic and something that I could implement later.
Every day I use about 60.9 gallons of water daily. the average American uses about 176
gallons of water daily. When compared to the national average I don’t use a large amount of
water. Currently, I am using about ⅓ the amount of water the average American uses. But the
average global citizen uses on 80-100 gallons of water a day. I am still using less water than the
average global citizen, but when compared to the average family living in Africa, who uses only
5 gallons a day, I use an enormous amount of water daily. My water usage has an effect on my
local environment. For a long time, Texas was in a bad drought. One of the reasons that the
drought created a hardship was that people were wasting water exacerbating drought
conditions. I have wasted water my whole life and I am still wasting water now because I want to
take a long shower or I was lazy with the dishwasher. If I were to conserve as much water as I
could I could have a positive impact. Just me using less water wouldn’t make a large impact on
my community but I can try to convince my family and friends into conserving water and
possibly have a positive effect in my community. If I were to reduce my water consumption I
could help the environment from losing so much water, there should be more water for
recreational uses like pools or spas, and there would be more water for hospitals, the Fire
Department, and other organizations that are essential to our community. This water audit is
relevant because we are running out of water. Texas has been through multiple draughts, the
state of California is running out of water entirely, and the global population is rising rapidly,
more and more people need water daily, and we aren't getting any more. If we don’t reduce our
water consumption, water prices will slowly increase, droughts and water shortages will only get
worse, and people will suffer needlessly without water.