Water quality, where to begin?

When I was first given the task of researching Water Quality I had no idea where to begin. It’s such a broad topic. A quick Google search told me that more than 750 million people (1 in 9!) lack access to safe water. That’s ridiculous, but a good starting point.

Water quality refers to the chemical, physical, biological, and radiological characteristics of water. Access to safe water is something I take for granted every day. I know I’m not the only one. As I continued my search I came across some pretty eye-opening, startling things. For instance, in developing countries, more than 800,000 people die each year from diarrhea caused by unsafe drinking water and inadequate sanitary conditions… So basically, diarrhea kills people. Something I normally associate with too much lactose, or corner store sushi kills an estimated 2,300 people a day.

I also learned that an average person in North America uses 80-100 gallons, (300+ liters) of water in a day. And over 25% of that water… is used to flush the toilet. One toilet flush in most newer model toilets is about 1.5 gallons, which is often less than the total amount of water many people in developing countries have at their disposal in a day. (And older model toilets can range from 3 to almost 8 gallons per flush!) Hopefully, all those numbers don’t distract you from what I’m trying to say here; we waste so much. Too much. (Water scarcity is a real issue, but that’s for another post down the road.)

All of this talk about water waste had me feeling pretty guilty about the times I was wasteful with water…Those 20-minute showers and running the tap excessively when dishwashing or teeth brushing, but honestly, I didn’t know. I didn’t know that when you run your tap 1.5 gallons (6 liters!) goes down the drain per minute, so I’m hoping that maybe some of you don’t know either. Water quality is an important part of environmental monitoring.

I’m chalking up all our ridiculous water wastage to naivety. Do I like to think that if more people know how much water they waste they will (hopefully) make a conscious effort to use less water, to begin with, right?

Plus, being more efficient with your water usage is good for your wallet too (but we’ll get to that another time, this is just an intro after all).

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