Melissa Faz P.

6th
Water Audit Essay
According to the United Nations, 780 million people lack access to safe drinking water.
It’s important that those who do have access to safe water don’t take it for granted and waste it.
The average American Family uses around 552 gallons of water each day whereas the average
African family, uses only around 5 gallons of water a day. I was tasked with recording how
much water I used in a day and how much my family used throughout the week. I found that I
use a total of 41.026 gallons of water each day, adding up to 287.182 gallons a week, and
16,879.408 gallons of water a year. The majority of the water I used personally was in the
shower. I think I used the majority of water in the shower because I enjoy taking long showers
when I get home from school. Especially since these last couple of weeks have been cold,
because there’s nothing better than a hot shower after a long, cold day at school. The minority of
the water I use is for water bottles. I think that was the minority because I only drink around one
water bottle at school, and once I get home I drink juice with my dinner and later on in the night
I drink milk. My numbers are lower compared to the nation whopping number of 80-100 gallons
per day for one person, but their still much higher than the numbers for a country that lacks
access to safe drinkable water. The factors that might account for the differences is that almost
all of the appliance I use on a day to day basis are high efficiency which cuts down my water
usage by more than half.
I can conserve a lot of water by taking shorter showers, install more high efficiency
appliances, installing a newer toilet, and by simply being more conscious of the amount of water
I use daily. By doing so I could effectively reduce my personal water usage by more than half.
The easiest way I could conserve water is by taking shorter showers. The hardest way I could
conserve water is by installing high efficiency appliances and a newer toilet because they both
would cost money.
I believe that my water usage is acceptable from a local perspective because according to
AustinTexas.gov, the average Austinite uses around 100-120 gallons of water a day. I also think
it is acceptable from regional perspective. From a global perspective, I think it is too when
compared to well developed countries but if compared to a country with little access to safe
water, I don’t think it is. The impact my current usage has is negative because although its less
than the average American, it's still more than the average person who lives in a third-world
country. The changes to my water usage could impact my community positively because I would
be decreasing the amount of water I use daily. The relevance this water audit has is that it awards
people globally, regionally, and locally to be more conscious of how much water they use a day
and to have an open mind set to make changes to your lifestyle to conserve more water. If no
changes occur, the impact on local, regional, and global communities would be negative because
water scarcity would increase.