Many people in the world enjoy access to lots of clean, fresh water. How does it get to our homes and how much water does a person in an average developed country uses? Can this be reduced and why should we take more care of the amount of water we use every day?
In developed countries, each person uses up to 1000 litres of water every day to drink, cook, wash, flush toilets and water gardens. However, in countries where water is not piped into houses, people use as little as five litres per day.
We cannot drink less water, but we can find ways to save water while performing every day activities around the house and garden:
Fresh water is pumped from a lake or reservoir to a water filtration plant, where it is filtered to remove weeds, fish and minerals. It is then pumped into storage tanks. Another source of clean water is waste water that comes from our homes, gets treated and then pumped back to storage tanks.
From the storage tanks it moves into underground water mains, which carry water to taps in your home. When we open the tap, the pressure in the pipes pushes the water out. Water pipes can also be connected directly to wells or boreholes to provide water to houses that are not connected to the water mains.