Why is conserving household water usage important? Doesn’t all the water end up at a treatment plant and go back into the supply at some point? Is water actually being depleted with things like long showers? Where does it go?
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The world only “creates” so much fresh water each year through evaporation from the ocean and rain over land. That fresh water is stored in aquifers and reservoirs, the main sources of our fresh water. If we use water faster than those aquifers are replenished, bad things happen: wells dry up; rivers, lakes, and streams dry up; land subsides; sinkholes; saltwater intrusion into aquifers; hydroelectric dams stop working, etc.
Reducing water use, reducing impervious surfaces (e.g., pavement) so that rain can infiltrate instead of running into a storm sewer and straight back into the ocean, and of course curbing climate change are the main ways we can influence how quickly the aquifers and reservoirs are replenished.
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