Free
In addition to the water you drink, you use about 100 gallons of water every day—for washing, cooking, and many other things.
A hundred gallons is about the same amount of water used in four five-minute showers. If you count the water needed to manufacture goods and raise and produce food, the amount is even greater. For example, it takes about 150 gallons of water to grow and produce one loaf of bread or to make enough paper for one Sunday newspaper. It takes over 39,000 gallons of water to make one new car. Every year, the population grows, and we need even more water. Yet, Earth has only so much water, and we have no way of making more. As a result, we must conserve what water we have.
▲ Earth has a lot of water—two-thirds of the planet is covered with water—but only about 1 percent of that water is drinkable. Another 2 percent is frozen in glaciers, and the rest of it—97 percent—is salty seawater. Desalination (getting rid of the salt in seawater) has been around since the time of Aristotle, in the fourth century B.C. One way to desalinate water is to boil it and collect the salt-free steam. That’s called distillation. Another way is to force the salt water through a series of filters that remove the salt and other impurities. The world’s biggest desalination plant is in Israel. All together, four desalination plants provide 20 percent of that country’s fresh water.
If all Earth’s water were put in a bottle...
The water on Earth comes from rain, snow, and other forms of precipitation, like hail. However, it doesn’t rain, snow, or hail every day. That’s probably a good thing, but if we want to have continued access to water, we must use it wisely. Here are some useful tips on water conservation. ▼
Five Ways You and Your Family Can Save Water
Turn off the water while you brush your teeth.
