Water
We never give a thought to the water which we
drink and use. We turn on the tap and water comes out. Our water
supplies will never run dry. We hope.
The average amount of water used every day in the
U.K. is 150 litres per person. But everything we buy from other
countries depends on their water supplies; this external consumption of
water adds up to 4,600 litres a day per person in the U.K. - a
staggering quantity. This is called our 'water footprint'.
A large part of our treated water supplies is
wasted through leakage. One estimate calculates that this lost water,
3.3 billion litres a day, is enough to meet the daily needs of one
third of the population of the U.K. Losses are higher now than they
were ten years ago in spite of investment of £7.5 billion. Of
course zero wastage of water is impossible but the government's
Environment Agency is sure that losses could be cut to 10%, a level
which has been reached by several European countries.
The Environment Agency predicts that
water supplies could drop by 10% or more in the near future due to
climate change and population growth.
Every time we buy a melon from Spain or a bottle of
beer from the U.S.A., large amounts of water are being used to produce
them and transport them. Of course the manufacture of industrial
products like cars or clothing also consumes enormous amounts of water;
buying a Japanese car or an Indian shirt greatly increases our water
footprint. Water is needed to irrigate crops, manufacture bottles, mine
the metals, extract the fuel, produce the plastic.
The quantities of water needed to produce, package
and
transport the following items are almost unbelievable :
# a cup of coffee takes 140 litres;
# a glass of wine - 145 litres;
# a hamburger - 2,400 litres;
# a t-shirt - 2,700 litres;
# a pair of shoes - 8,000 litres;
# a kilo of beef - 16,000 litres.
If pure clean water cost £50 a litre, we would
treat it with the care and respect it deserves.
Water
meters
'Water footprint'