What does “water use” mean? Water isn’t permanently “gone”?

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[google is very unhelpful, it’s broken now. I can’t find any posts explaining the specific thing I want to know]

Was asked this question by a friend.
When we say that producing one item of clothing uses x amount of water. She doesn’t see the harm because the water used to grow cotton doesn’t disappear “it’s part of the cycle”.

Pollution must be a factor right? There is a difference between drinking water, saltwater and contaminated water? (Surely they’re not using clean drinking water for production?)
Exasperated by the fact that production is usually performed in areas with poor regulation/infrastructure.
(Is it inherently damaging, or damaging because of how it’s performed?)
Is the water “used” because it becomes vapor? Is it used because the molecules are taken apart? Either way shouldn’t this technically be reversible?

[I am not very articulate, and I find it very difficult to organize my thoughts to words. This question ended up frustratingly inprecise!]

Edit: thanks for the good responses:)

In: Biology

22 Answers

Anonymous 0 Comments

There is a cycle but it has to be in balance.

Water goes up into the air, falls on mountains and becomes rivers.

If we take too much water from the river, no more rain falls, so the river dries up.

For evidence: look up the Murray River is Adelaide, Australia. It routinely doesn’t reach the sea any more as it gets intensively used for farming further upstream.

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