Water has become kind of the blue gold of the 21st century much as oil was seen as the black gold of the last one,” said Maude Barlow, author of Blue Gold from “A World Without Water”
In other words, we’re all part of an imminent water crisis, also known as a water shortage.
As the world’s population grows, so does the demand for clean, fresh drinking water. To put it into perspective, only three per cent of the world’s water is fresh water. However only one per cent of this is available to humans, the rest is frozen in glaciers. Eventually, there simply won’t be enough water to go around.
Making it worse, Canadians are the second largest consumers of water, with the United States coming in first. Canadians currently use 160 cubic meters annually per capita or 335 litres per day. Not only is this sixty-five per cent more than the world’s average, it’s three times as much the average German, and eight times as the average Dane!
With statistics like this, it won’t be hard to believe that UNESCO has predicted that by 2020, water shortages will be a serious worldwide problem. If that news didn’t hit you hard enough – that’s 11 years!
Already, there are countries experiencing water shortages. As some Canadians over-water their lawns to make them perfect, there is someone in a foreign country, thirsty. Many of them are unsure they will have access to clean, safe water in the future.
There is good news to this sad story: everyone currently has the power to take action and prevent this looming crisis.
Simple things around the home include regulating the amount of water used for grass watering, checking for leaky faucets and toilets which can waste up to 75 litres of water per day and minimizing the time spent in the shower. Just these simple things have been proven to decrease the amount of water used and wasted.
Out of all the water used in the home, 35 per cent is used for shower and bathing, while 30 per cent is literally flushed down the toilet.
A Quebec based company, called Brac Systems invented a greywater recycling system, which uses bath and shower water to flush toilets. Not only is this eliminating the use of drinkable water in toilet bowls, it is saving homes up to 35 to 40 per cent off their annual water and sewer bills.
Water and sewage prices are expected to rise in the near future due to demand and availability. Within the last month, the city of Barrie raised their water prices about 12-14 per cent for the average household. In other words, water is becoming a limited and more expensive resource.
The amount of fresh drinking water on earth is unchanging, yet population and consumption continue to increase. We will never receive any new water, but we will never lose the amount we already have. How we use it is what determines how much water we will have to go around. Use it wisely, every drop counts!
For more information on our looming water crisis, or the Brac Greywater system, visit www.bracsystems.com or www.theinstallteam.com