Five Friday Water Facts

by Justin Manger on May 14th, 2010

This week’s facts are brought to you by an ad in Wired magazine for the Singapore Sessions, a “multi-platform, multi-disciplinary approach that seeks to find the most insightful solutions to the most pressing business challenges facing the world today.”

In the last century, the world population quadrupled while the amount of freshwater consumed increased by 900%.
It is estimated that by 2030, half the world will be living under severe water stress.
Roughly 70% of freshwater goes to irrigation, 22% percent to industry, and 8% to domestic uses.
Amount of water needed daily to survive: 0.5 gallons (1.9 liters)
Amount of water needed daily to:
- flush the toilet: 4.5 gallons (17 liters)
- brush your teeth: 2 gallons (7.5 liters)
- take a 5 minute shower: 37.5 gallons (142 liters)
- use automatic dish washer: 10.5 gallons (40 liters)

- Justin Manger

Posted in Conservation, Five Friday Facts, Justin Manger

Tags: Water, Water Conservation

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Michael Hippenhammer

5 minute shower takes 37.5 gallons? If a standard shower head is rated at 2.5 gpm then a 5 minute shower should only take 12.5 gallons.
http://2ndgreenrevolution.com/ Justin Manger

Nice catch, Michael. Looks like you’re right. We’ve got an email into Singapore Sessions to see if they can explain.
http://2ndgreenrevolution.com/ Justin Manger

Here is the response from Singapore Sessions (low-flow toilets are mentioned, but the same can be said for a move to low-flow showers:

———- Forwarded message ———-
From: ****@edb.gov.sg>
Date: Mon, May 17, 2010 at 4:52 AM
Subject: FW: Question on Water Facts Found in Wired Magazine
To: “justin@2ndgreenrevolution.com”

Hi Justin,

Thanks for your email, and for your interest in the Singapore Sessions!

The facts & figures quoted in the ad were attributed to various sources including Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), UN-Water, World Water Assessment Programme (WWAP) and World Health Organization (WHO).

But you and your reader are right that the estimates were on the high side, e.g. many of today’s toilet flushes do not consume 4.5 gallons of water per flush, unlike older models.

This is something we’ve noted as well (but unfortunately the ad has gone to print at that point).

That said, what we really wanted to communicate through the facts was that we’ve not been optimizing the use of our precious water resources (i.e. we technically only need 0.5 gallons daily to stay alive, but we are also spending much more water on other uses).

Regards

***********

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