Water in our lives: how we use it
Imagine life without water. Impossible! People, animals, plants - we all need water to survive.
Water is used to produce the food we eat and the products we use. For example, manufacturing a car uses hundreds of thousands of litres of water.
We flush a third of the water we use down the toilet. In the summer, watering our gardens can cause household use to jump 30%.
Drinking and cooking 4%
Garden watering 20%
Toilet flushing 32%
Bathing and cleaning 28%
Laundry and dishes 16%
By international standards, Canadians waste a lot of water. Cheap and seemingly unlimited supplies discourage conservation, but water districts on Bowen Island that suffer summer water shortages have become very efficient water users. How did they do it?
Summer water use in Eagle Cliff dropped 70% when household meters were installed. When we have to pay for what we use, we tend to use less. Meters also identify leaks in the pipe system.
