Water Audit Essay

An average person in America uses approximately 176 gallons of water a day. An

average person in Africa uses 6 gallons for their whole family a day. I use approximately
151 gallons on a daily basis. Which is a bit less than the average American uses. A
family in Africa uses 4% of what I use in a day. Which is a vast difference. On a weekly
basis, I use around 1,023 gallons, and on a yearly basis I use 53,157 gallons. On a daily
basis, I use 140 gallons a day from showering. Normally, I shower everyday and spend
approximately 15 to 20 minutes in the shower. But on some days when I’m either too
busy or too lazy to shower, the following day I tend to take up to 35 minute showers. So
the majority of my water usage comes from showering. On the contrary, I used the least
amount of water for filling up my water bottle. Only a small bit over a gallon was used for
my water bottle, a day. The most likely reason why my water bottle is the least water I
use, is that I don’t always have my water bottle on hands every part of the day. If I did
have my bottle at all times. Then I don’t think I would use so little water. I also don’t
have my shower on me all the time. So what’s different from my water bottle and my
shower? The factors that make up the difference are that the shower is basically
throwing water away; straight down the drain even. My water bottle is being consumed
by me and not being wasted, recklessly.
There is many ways how I can help conserve water that I don’t need to waste. I
could most likely conserve over half of the water I use every day, if the water wasn’t so
accessible to me at any time. There are also many possible ways to start conserving
water, too. For example, if I were to start cutting down my shower by 10 minutes
(normally, it would be 20 minutes), then the amount of water I normally use (140
gallons) would go down to only 70 gallons. 70 gallons is still a lot but it’s a big difference
to 140 gallons. Another way I could conserve my water is by reducing the amount of
time I use the restroom, or by not using the restroom at all. I could go outside. Doing
this would help conserve the 4.8 gallons I use every day. Another way that I could
conserve the water I use is by shutting off the faucet when I’m not needing to use it, and
by making sure it’s not dripping. All these three examples are effective ways to reduce
my personal water usage. The easiest strategy to implement right away would be to
start reducing the time I spend in the shower. Because I could spend way less time in
the shower, if I just do everything fast. The most difficult strategy to implement would be
the one regarding the restroom. It might be hard to find a place where I could do my
business, other than my toilet. But if I did, it would reduce my water usage by a bit.
I hadn’t really thought, and calculated, how much water I use in a day. It has
always been so accessible to me, that I hadn’t thought of other people and other areas
that aren’t so fortunate as I am. I don’t really know if my water usage is ‘acceptable’ at
all, because acceptable water usage may mean different in underdeveloped countries,
like Burundi. On a local perspective, I’d say my water usage is not that acceptable
because the average usage is around 80 to 100 gallons a day. On a national
perspective, I’d say my water usage is acceptable, it is below average than the
national’s but I still do use a lot. On a global perspective, my daily water usage is not
acceptable. I take advantage of the water availability. Maybe too much advantage. I use
way more water than I should need to, some people, who don’t have much access to
water, may call me greedy for it. That’s why my water usage is so unacceptable, on a
global perspective. The amount of water I use impacts everything negatively. It impacts
the Earth by decreasing the amount of consumable water that the Earth has. It impacts
other countries by also decreasing the amount of consumable water that other countries
and people have to consume. When I do change the amount of water I use, it could
positively impact my community. I could lower help lower the city’s money spent on
water. It could also help a ton of other things. This personal water audit relates to all
local, regional, and global communities because it could raise awareness to start
conserving water and help people reduce the risk of amplification of fresh water
scarcity, which may already be happening. Not trying to implement any changes on our
water usage would affect our local, regional, and global communities negatively. It could
cause the government to raise the price for water and affect low income families
everywhere in America. Making no changes would affect people in underdeveloped
countries even worse.