The water footprint of a nation shows the total volume of water that is used to produce the goods and services consumed by the inhabitants of the nation. The virtual water content of a product is the volume of water used to produce the product, measured at the place where the product was actually produced.
Sabrina and Tim tried out this water footprint calculator to see what their personal water footprints were (and you can too!). Here are their results:
After doing the survey that calculated my water consumption, I was really shocked to see where most of our water went. I then looked at the biggest areas for my house which ended up being that bathroom and laundry. At first I wasn't sure how I would be able to cut back but I timed my shower use and added up the minutes that my washing machine ran for over the course of the day. My roommates then timed their showers and I was surprised to know that each day we were spending over 45 minutes in the shower. Each day the washing machine ran on average for one hour.
I sat down and realised that if we all had three minute showers we could more than cut our bathroom water usage in half. I then started doing my washing on a fast load and waited till there were lots of things to be washed, my roommates and I also have started washing our clothing together.
According to the water footprint calculator provided, (http://www.waterfootprint.org/?page=cal/WaterFootprintCalculator) the total water footprint is estimated to be 1313 cubic meters per year: 762 coming from food, 111 from domestic use and a further 440 for industrial use. These figure incorporates an average shower time of 5 minutes, once per day and a bath once a week. An average bath fills 140 litres and a shower consumes approximately 7-15 litres per minute average according to a study hosted by Yarra Valley Water.
By simply reducing the time spent in a shower to 3 minutes, that saves a substantial quantity weekly. Furthermore, by using a half flush rather than a dual halves the water consumption of the toilet. Other water reduction strategies as suggested by the group include rather than hand washing dishes before putting them in a dish washer would be giving them a quick rinse as this would regularly be sufficient. Simply turning off the tap while you brush your teeth/shave saves an alarmingly large amount. Other interventions include fixing leaking toilets/ taps as this unnecessarily uses water. Switching to modern, more water efficient household appliances such as dishwashers, washing machines, eco-friendly taps/ shower heads.
