Water - one of our daily necessities, on which all of us are dependent.

This comes from nature,

making it a natural resource. We all know that ¾ of our planet is covered with water in which
97% of water in the world is salt water and 3% is freshwater, of that only 0.025% is drinkable.
Water is essential to life. Life began in the presence of water. Without it, every living being
would go extinct. Water makes up 60-75% of human body weight. A loss of just 4% of total
body water leads to dehydration, and a loss of 15% can be fatal. Likewise, a person could survive
a month without food but would not survive 3 days without water. Could you imagine life
without this? It would be exceedingly difficult. But if we come to think of it, we do not utilize
water properly. According to the World Resources Institute in 2013, an environmental think
tank, inside the 1.3 billion tons of food wasted every year worldwide is 45 trillion gallons of
water. As the CHS Statistics Book Review had stated, at least 3.5 billion people will run short of
water by 2040. This only suggests that we really need to sustain and utilize water. But how can
we do that?
If you think you are too small to make a change, no! You could make a tremendous change with
your small steps. These include reducing the usage of water, an example is taking a short shower.
According to the Alliance for Water Efficiency, an average shower's water usage is 17.2 gallons
or 65.1 liters with an average shower length of 8 minutes at an average flow rate of 2 gallons per
minute.
Some ways include:
First) Make sure that the water taps are completely turned off. A dripping tap wastes 8 gallons of
water a day.
Second) Do not use the toilet as an ashtray or wastebasket - Every time you flush a cigarette butt,
facial tissue, or other small bits of trash, you are wasting gallons of water.
Third) Do Rain harvesting which is a practice of ensuring water conservation. The harvested
rainwater during the wetter seasons of the year can be used during the dry seasons. This
minimizes the usage of water from the waterbodies.
Fourth) Practice the 3 Rs - Reduce, reuse, and recycle. Recycling waste reduces the number of
wastes available, reducing soil and water pollution. Common wastes such as plastics, paper bags,
and bottles have resulted in tons of garbage.
And fifth) Control overpopulation. Population is a gift to a certain extent. Beyond limits, it can
destroy the nature around. Overpopulation means more people will use our natural resources,
which will take a toll on nature. Natural resources are limited. If we overuse it, the following
generations will suffer wide scarcity of water.