Is it more of a water bill thing, or do you actually effect the water supply? (Long showers, dishwashers, etc)
In: 2176
Other people are correct in that you’re wasted *treated* water, which is a waste of time, money, energy and resources.
Fact is, the water companies in many places are pouring away millions of times more water than you ever will by having leaky pipes and poor networks, etc.
Most of the “water saving” stuff comes from… water suppliers. Who would normally be charging you per litre. So why would they care, surely they’d want you to use MORE water? In the UK, at least, they charge a fixed amount per household based – believe it or not – on a 90’s-era assessment of the size of the house. Irrespective of how many people live in it, what’s happened to the house since, how much you actually use, etc. etc.
So while they shouldn’t care how much you use, if they cared about it from a money or ecological viewpoint, they’d charge you more accurately. They care because they want you to use less and continue to charge you a fixed – and largely fabricated – price. (Imagine owning a business with a single product that’s measured and priced by the kilo, litre or meter, and then constantly telling your customers to buy less of your product!)
I got a water meter fitted in a new house I moved into. My next water bill was 10% of what they’d been charging me and the previous owner. Because the water meter measures actual usage at the point of delivery.
Given the electricity smart meter rollout, the amount of news time that water wastage gets, and the stupendous profits of the UK “you have no choice but to use us” water monopolies, I’m amazed that water meters aren’t already compulsory.
You’d see the CONSUMER USAGE of actual water consumption plummet. The water companies would reveal their overcharging and how inefficient and leaky their systems are almost instantly. And they’d be forced to double or triple or more their “price per litre” but it would likely still end up cheaper for you because you’re not using anywhere near what they claim you are.
You’re not wasting the H2O, technically. What you’re wasting is all the energy and chemicals and work that it takes to make that water clean and safe to use, and then deliver it to somebody’s house.
Also keep in mind that while water you pour down the drain will rejoin the normal water cycle, that doesn’t mean it will end up back in *your* local water supply. Water travels around a lot. The water you dump down the drain might end up hundreds or even thousands of miles away before it’s usable again. This is why it’s especially important to conserve water in places where rain is infrequent. In such areas, it’s easy to use up your local water supply faster than it gets refilled.
EPA certified water operator here; there’s a few things that go into this- the biggest one being the fact the earth has an extremely finite amount of freshwater, even more finite is the chance that the water is actually accessible and there year round(snow melt, rain seasons etc.) second most important is water demand, typically summer is the highest use months, and the wells have to run enough water through the treatment plant to keep the water towers filled to a certain level, if not water pressure will drop which can cause a very large host of issues. Structure fires are also more prevalent from late spring to late summer, so having a lot of available water for a fire flow is crucial. Lastly, when water hits the drain it goes to a wastewater plant, rural areas it will go to a septic tank/leech field. When you use water it does not return to its original place, likely it’s discharged to a river or stream after treatment. It takes exponentially more time for an aquifer or body of water to replace that freshwater than it does for us to use it.
I am in Southern California and there is a limited amount of potable water we use because it will rain 4-5 days in 3 years (in total) during drought seasons. Water is abundant as seawater but drinkable potable water is a scarcity. It is most often found in precipitation, and that is stored underground in aquafiers. Large populations and big at can drain such storage, and the land will sink.
Water rationing is within our future. I think for much of the western us, unless desalination becomes more common. Desal is very energy intensive and faces environmentalist lawsuits.
Potable water is not as much of an issue in other parts of the US where it rains more often.
Latest Answers