Water is increasingly becoming a scarce resource globally. Beijing is a very dry city and it’s important that we try not to use more water than we absolutely need. To follow up on this month’s Green issue of beijingkids, below is a little handy table to calculate how much water each of us uses at home in ONE day.
|
Domestic Activity
|
Approx Water Usage*
|
Activity Subtotal
|
|
Bath
|
50 gallons (200 liters)
|
|
|
Shower
|
2 gallons per minute (8 liters)
|
|
|
Teeth brushing
|
1 gallon (4 liters)
|
|
|
Hands/face washing
|
1 gallon (4 liters)
|
|
|
Face/leg shaving
|
1 gallon (4 liters)
|
|
|
Dishwasher
|
20 gallons/load (80 liters)
|
|
|
Dishwashing by hand
|
5 gallons/load (20 liters)
|
|
|
Clothes washing (machine)
|
10 gallons/load (40 liters)
|
|
|
Toilet flush
|
3 gallons/flush (12 liters)
|
|
|
Glasses of water drunk
|
8 oz. per glass (1/16th of a gallon) (250ml)
|
|
|
Grand Total
|
|
_______________ gallons/ liters
|
* One gallon equals to 3.78 liters, but for the sake of easy calculation here, one gallon equates with 4 liters.
Using this table, I found out that my daily average water usage was about 44 gallons (approx. 160 liters). Apparently that’s under the US national average. Needless to say, however, I was a little horrified – that’s 160 bottles of 1L water! So I tried to tinker with the numbers like a creative accountant but couldn’t get it down below 140 liters.
Give it a go and find out how much water you use per day. By knowing where your biggest water usage goes will help you to take active steps towards reducing it. For example, doing a load of laundry takes up to 10 gallons/40 liters of water each time, so it’s probably wise to either reduce the number of loads or reduce the water usage each time by choosing the medium- or low- water level setting.
Keep in mind that this table only shows part of our daily water usage i.e. domestic usage. It doesn’t take into account our share of water usage in the agricultural, industrial and commercial sectors. For example, the water used in producing and transporting the food we eat, the clothes we wear, the stuff we buy and so on.
Happy water saving!
