Water
July 1, 2009 by amucklow
These hot summer days have got me thinking about water. I’m craving a drink of it, desperate for a swim in it and am grateful for a wash in it. When you start thinking about it water is so precious, more so than gold and even oil.
But as a precious resource it often worryingly slips under the discussion radar when environmental issues are being debated. Water is a resource that causes international disputes – just look at the Middle East. The Government’s chief scientist Prof. John Beddington warned earlier this year about the dangers of insufficient energy, food shortages and water scarcity, calling this combination of problmes the ‘perfect storm’. Yet, we are still taking water for granted.
The thing about water is that no matter what your interests are it matters to you. How you look after your clothes, what you eat and drink and how you function each day is related to water. CSF’s student competition has a category dedicated to it this year too (make sure you enter soon!). Just to make your t-shirt took about 4100 litres of water though finding the exact stat is difficult with some estimates at about 2000. The basic minimum quantity of safe water needed for drinking, cooking and personal hygiene in any household is at least 15 litres per person per day, according to the internationally recognised Sphere Project.
To measure your water footprint click here – you’ll be suprised how much water you use.
