Your Water Footprint
How much water do you use in a day? A bath uses about 50 gallons of water. A shower, 2 gallons per minute. You'll use a gallon each time you wash your face or hands or brush your teeth. Flushing the toilet averages about 3 gallons. Don't forget about the water used in cooking, lawn watering, and clothes washing.
DID YOU KNOW?
We take about 28,433 showers in a lifetime, using about 70,000 gallons of water. That's enough water to fill four large swimming pools!
SOURCE: NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC
We use a lot of water each day.
How can we reduce our water footprint?
- Take shorter showers.
- Turn off the water while you brush your teeth.
- Install low-flow showerheads, toilets, and washing machines.
- Fix dripping faucets. They can waste up to 4,000 gallons of water each month.
- Collect rainwater to water your garden.
- Run your sprinklers in the morning or evening. When you water your lawn in the heat of the afternoon, you lose water to evaporation.
- Landscape with native plants that don't require extra water or fertilizer.
We also need to keep the water supply safe. Never pour chemicals down a storm drain or onto the ground. They will end up in the groundwater that feeds into our supply of drinking water. Liquids such as paints, pesticides, and used automobile oil should be taken to a drop-off center where they will be disposed of safely.
