I always hear that we have a limited amount of fresh water. If I take a shower that is too long, and that water is going into my septic tank and back into the ground, is there any harm besides the energy used in pumping and warming it?
In my instance my house is 100% solar powered and we are on a well and septic- am I “wasting” water by brushing my teeth in the shower?
In: Other
Although water is the ultimate virtuous cycle, precipitation > evaporation > precipitation, the reality for us is that water needs to be available, get collected and distributed first in order to be used, and that often comes at high costs. Demand and costs around water and the impact of that – financially and to peoples and nature, is shared in communities.
Rain or snow has to fall consistently for water to be collected, and whether that happens over the catchment site, is not necessarily reflected by weather near where you live. Often the dams and rainfall run low or may become inadequate. Also as catchments run low, quality of water lessens.
Exclusive use of water for particular communities and damming upstream, can have dire effects downstream, creating humane and natural disasters effecting farming, livelihoods, animals and environments terribly.
Water is needed for other social purposes (hospitals, fire fighting, key industries etc) as much as natural and personal use, to keep society functioning.
In some places, that’s provided by building and operating desalination or reprocessing plants for seawater, industrial waste waters or sewage(London uses sewage) cost a huge amount of money to run.
Where water availability is cheap geographically and climatically, and demand/waste is not as much, there is less cost. Those monies maybe more available both personally and in society, to be put to other purposes, health, education, fun etc.
A good, thoughtful question, about how we value and use this most essential resource, that can impact on society in such a simple way.
Latest Answers