How much do you think of water as a “precious resource”? Of course I appreciate water after a long, hot day on my first sip to quench my thirst. But we hear much stronger calls to “conserve water.” Water is so easily available at home, there’s tons of water in the ocean and lakes, it even rains all the time in Vancouver! So why do we need to conserve water?
Think of how much of the water we see can be labeled “drinking water.” To obtain water appropriate for drinking or washing, the water needs to go through treatment plants that purify water. Once used, the waste water going down the drain is then processed in waste plants, returned to the environment, and entered into natural water cycles that makes water available again. This means that if we use up water faster than nature can replenish, we’re continuously draining our water resource, energy and money.
And this is what is happening with our current lifestyle. Lots of water use depletes the “clean” water we have, while adding more work to the wastewater plants and nature to recycle the water into something usable for us. The impact dirty wastewater has on our water and wildlife opens up a whole new door of problems as well.
So how can we help? Mr. Water in this humorous video shows very well where we find water in our daily lives and provides hints to “squeeze more from every drop” to help conserve water. Next time I walk to the sink, I’ll see if I can pour more into our human-water “relationship.”
(This article was published in December 2012 on At this time the news magazine and Community of Accounting and Business Professionals blog)
