NEWS: Watery Feet & Conserving Water
14/06/08 10:43
Saving water in daily
practice is not a big issue in regions that are not
drought stressed. The trendy term du jour about
reducing clean water consumption is water footprint
— something like the concept of a carbon
footprint.
The idea has some
merit, but it also has a few flaws. Reducing water
consumption in the U.S. doesn’t help provide more
water in southern Africa. And on a smaller scale,
using less water in Oregon doesn’t do much for
water consumption in Arizona. That said, there are
good local and global reasons to reduce water usage
in many regions. Clean water, for instance,
consumes a great deal of energy to prepare for
domestic and most industrial uses. And many people
are interested in doing proactive things to reduce
their consumption of clean water and, by extension,
their energy use. I recently saw a nice
list of ways to reduce water use
that might be of more general interest.
