In honor of World Water Day on March 22nd, let’s celebrate water. Did you know you can live for weeks without food, yet you’ll die within days without water? It makes up 60% of our bodies (90% of our blood!) and is critical for all life on earth.
Water is made up of three molecules – two of hydrogen and one of oxygen. It’s found in liquid, gas (as vapor), and solid forms. It shifts shape. It’s odorless, tasteless, and nearly transparent. It has no nutritional value. Yet all life, including ours, would die without it.
Oceans make up 97% of water on the planet, which means that the water we need to survive, freshwater, is only 3% of all the water available. And of that freshwater, two-thirds is frozen in ice. All that to say – water is a scarce, valuable, necessary resource!
Koalas sit around so much they don’t even need to drink water!
Fascinating Water Facts
- 75% of the human brain is water, and 75% of a living tree is water.
- A koala sits around so much that it never has to drink water – it can get all it needs through the eucalyptus leaves it eats.
- A jellyfish and a cucumber are both made up of 95% water.
- Water (in the form of ice) was discovered on both the moon and Mars in 2008.
- We have the same amount of water on Earth now as when the planet formed. That means when you take a sip, you could be drinking the same water a dinosaur drank 66 million years ago! (U.S. Environmental Protection Agency)
- A swimming pool naturally loses about 1,000 gallons a month to evaporation.
- More than 25% of all bottled water comes from a municipal water supply, where tap water comes from.
- U.S. residents use about 100 gallons of water per day; Europeans use approximately 50.
- Brazil has the most freshwater on the planet, followed (in order) by Russia, Canada, Indonesia, Mainland China, Columbia, and the U.S. (source: The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations)
A leaky faucet can drip 3,000 gallons of water in a year!
10 Ways to Save Water
There’s a global water crisis affecting all of us that isn’t being talked about enough – or dealt with.
The United Nations has projected that two-thirds of the world’s population will face water scarcity by 2025, only three years from now.
Here are ten simple things you can do to save our most precious life-giving resource.
- Turn off the tap when brushing your teeth. The average faucet releases two gallons of water every minute when turned on. Brush twice a day, and you can save four gallons of water every 24 hours by turning off your tap while brushing. That’s over 2,900 gallons saved each year.
- Fix your faucets. A leaking tap that drips one drop per second will waste 3,000 gallons in a year.
- Take fewer baths. A bath uses up to 70 gallons of water; a five-minute shower uses 10 to 25 gallons.
- Do less laundry. You can wear those jeans more than once. Really.
- Check your toilet for leaks. Put a few drops of food coloring in your toilet tank and see if the color begins to appear in your bowl without flushing. If it does, you have a leak that could waste more than 100 gallons of water a day.
- Keep water in the fridge. Leave some water in your fridge, so you don’t run the tap needlessly to wait for it to get cold. (Filter your water; do not buy bottled.)
- Water your lawn only when necessary. Only water your property when you have to, not on a set schedule, so you can consider the weather. Water in the early morning and deep soak the soil. Better yet, rip up your lawn and plant a permaculture garden so you can save water and feed yourself healthy food!
- Plant right. Plant drought-resistant trees and shrubs that are indigenous to your area. Putting mulch around them will help keep in moisture.
- Use a broom. You don’t need to wash down your sidewalks or driveway – use a broom to sweep off debris.
- Wash your car right. Soap down your car with soapy water in a bucket. Only use water to hose it down when you’re done.
Right click and save this handy reminder on ways you can save water!