A Holistic Understanding of Water Uses & Consumption
Water consumption is important topic we all need to take into consideration.
Global water use has increased dramatically over the past century, and water scarcity continues to grow at an alarming rate.
All the major industries rely on water for production. The sectors that use the most water is agriculture, power generation, Food & beverages, Dairy, Pharmaceuticals, Paper, textiles and domestic uses.
However, what is alarming is that today, over 1 billion people lack access to safe drinking water, and 2.5 billion lack sanitation.
The demand for freshwater increases each year as populations grow, industries develop, and energy needs increases.
A clear understanding of water consumption can help us provide a solution to one of our most persistent problems and make sure that water is available for everyone on Earth. Most of the water we consume is obvious and visible in our homes.
Cooking, washing, and drinking account for around 20% of water we use every day. Laundry is 30%, flushing the toilet 10%, and bathing and showering take up 35%. Cleaning, cooking, and drinking are also among the main uses of domestic water.
However, it’s very skeptical that what we consume for domestic use is the only WATER consumption that we have. In fact, it is the only visible consumption which makes up just a small bit of what we use in total.
If we make a study in detail, we will be surprised to note that there is a big volume of virtual consumption of water which we don’t usually take into account. Around 70% of water is used in agriculture…Food and beverage industries require large amounts of water…while 20% is used in fertilizer, Textile and paper industries. Food production must keep pace with population growth and the rise in income levels in developing countries, which will add to the demand for water.
As we all know, production of crops depends on available water resources. The most significant factor in determining the water consumption in agricultural or food industry is the amount of water needed to produce the given food item or crop.
For example, it takes 1500 liters of water to produce 1kg of wheat, 2,497 liters for 1kg of rice, 3,178 liters for 1kg of cheese, and about 1000 liters for 1 liter of milk.
We must also understand, that indiscriminate withdrawal through these renewable water sources could exhaust and abandon them forever. In some areas of the world, the supply of surface water is not able to meet demand due to overuse and now facing drought conditions.
Therefore, understanding the direct and the virtual water consumption per capita can help us avoid wastage of water.
