The Importance of Water
Every living organism needs water to survive. Plants need water to make food. All animals depend on plants for food either directly or indirectly. Therefore without water, all life forms will cease to exist. With the ever increasing population, water is becoming a scarce commodity. To worsen this situation, the few available sources of water for consumption by living organisms are being depleted at an alarming rate. Careless release of wastes into water bodies is also a major problem today. If nothing is done to reverse the situation, then it is predicted that it will be extremely hard to find clean water in future.
It is obvious that direct consumption by plants and animals is top among uses of water. Water has many other important functions such as washing, transportation, recreation, industrial applications, chemical uses, fire extinguishing among other uses. There is no other solvent that can be used to serve all these functions of water. This further stresses the importance of water in life. Without it life will be extremely difficult. Therefore everyone is charged with the responsibility of taking care of water because survival depends on it.
There is a lot that an individual can do to conserve this precious commodity. They all aim at reducing the amount of water wasted every single day. Examples of thing you can do to conserve water include:
- Turning off the tap when shaving, brushing teeth, doing dishes, washing the hands and so on. Why should you leave the tap running when you are not using the water? While you soap up, turn the tap off to prevent unnecessary wastage of water. Turn it on only when you want to rinse.
- Wait until you have full load before washing dishes or clothes. Do not wash just because you want to wear the same clothes tomorrow. Modern dishwasher can be used to save water compared to the use of hands. Check the water usage of a washing machine or dish washer before buying.
- Check for leaks. A lot of water can go into waste if your plumbing is leaking. Ensure that the whole plumbing system is watertight. Do not allow even a single drop of water to leak.
- As you wait for hot water, catch all the cold water that flows out first. This water can be useful in doing something else.
- Ensure that you take shorter showers. Challenge yourself to reduce your showering time. Turn off the shower when you soap up.
- Install a low flush toilet. There are many low flush toilets that work efficiently and use only a small amount of water. Upgrade to this kind of toilets to save on the amount of water consumed in each flushing.
- Water your lawn or garden at night. Watering during the day wastes a lot of water due to evaporation. Evaporation rate at night is slow, giving the water more time to soak in the soil.
- Cover the swimming pool when it is not in use. This helps to maintain the volume of water by cutting down the evaporation rates.
- Wash your car at the car wash. Car washes collect the water and reuse it to wash other cars. Cars washes may also use less water than the amount you use at home.
- Water you plants deeply but less frequently. This helps to encourage plants form deeper root. With the growth of deep roots, the plants will need water less frequently.
These are just few of the things that can be done to conserve water. More can be done to minimize the amount of water that goes into waste. Check how you use water and identify the activities which waste a lot of water and make changes. Don’t wait until there is real water scarcity to learn the importance of water.
Due to the threat of water scarcity, many organizations have been set up to conserve water. All these organizations have been made by people who understand the importance of water to the world and know that there will be no life without water. These organizations include Global Water, the Alliance for Water Efficiency, and American Rivers among others. They all have the same goal, that is, to ensure that water is conserved and our waterways are kept as clean as possible so that every person and other organisms in the world today and in future can enjoy access to clean water.