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Water conservation is the most cost-effective and environmentally sound way to reduce our demand for water.
It is the preservation, control and development of water resources, both surface and groundwater, and prevention of pollution.

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Fresh, clean water is a limited resource. While most of the planet is covered in water, it is salt water that can only be consumed by humans and other species after undergoing desalination, which is an expensive process. Occurrences such as droughts further limit access to clean and fresh water, meaning people need to take steps to reduce water use and save as much water as possible. In some areas of the world, access to water is limited due to contamination. People who have access to fresh water can take steps to limit their use of water to avoid waste.

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1994 was the year that federally mandated low-flow showerheads, faucets, and toilets started to appear on the scene in significant numbers. How can you conform to the standards and help increase energy efficiency in your home?

On average, 10 gallons per day of your water footprint (or 14% of your indoor use) is lost to leaks. Short of installing new water-efficient fixtures, one of the easiest, most effective ways to cut your footprint is by repairing leaky faucets and toilets.

If you use a low-flow showerhead, you can save 15 gallons of water during a 10-minute shower.

Every time you shave minutes off your use of hot water, you also save energy and keep dollars in your pocket.

It takes about 70 gallons of water to fill a bathtub, so showers are generally the more water-efficient way to bathe.

All of those flushes can add up to nearly 20 gallons a day down the toilet. If you still have a standard toilet, which uses close to 3.5 gallons a flush, you can save by retrofitting or filling your tank with something that will displace some of that water, such as a brick.

Most front-loading washing machines are energy- and water-efficient, using just over 20 gallons a load, while most top-loading machines, unless they are energy-efficient, use 40 gallons per load.

Nearly 22% of indoor home water use comes from doing laundry. Save water by making sure to adjust the settings on your machine to the proper load size.

Dishwashing is a relatively small part of your water footprint-less than 2% of indoor use-but there are always ways to conserve. Using a machine is actually more water efficient than hand washing, especially if you run full loads.

Energy Star dishwashers use about 4 gallons of water per load, and even standard machines use only about 6 gallons. Hand washing generally uses about 20 gallons of water each time.

Nearly 60% of a person's household water footprint can go toward lawn and garden maintenance.

Climate counts-where you live plays a role in how much water you use, especially when it comes to tending to a yard.

The average pool takes 22,000 gallons of water to fill, and if you don't cover it, hundreds of gallons of water per month can be lost due to evaporation.

The water it takes to produce the average American diet alone-approximately 1,000 gallons per person per day-is more than the global average water footprint of 900 gallons per person per day for diet, household use, transportation, energy, and the consumption of material goods.

That quarter pounder is worth more than 30 average American showers. One of the easiest ways to slim your water footprint is to eat less meat and dairy. Another way is to choose grass-fed, rather than grain-fed, since it can take a lot of water to grow corn and other feed crops.

A serving of poultry costs about 90 gallons of water to produce. There are also water costs embedded in the transportation of food (gasoline costs water to make). So, consider how far your food has to travel, and buy local to cut your water footprint.

Pork costs water to produce, and traditional pork production-to make your sausage, bacon, and chops-has also been the cause of some water pollution, as pig waste runs into local water sources.

On average, a vegan-a person who doesn't eat meat or dairy-may indirectly consume less than a person who eats dairy, though a new study calls this into question, as eating enough vegetables to generate the same energy as meat also takes a significant amount of water.

A cup of coffee takes 55 gallons of water to make, with most of that H2O used to grow the coffee beans.

The water footprint of your per-day electricity use is based on state averages. If you use alternative energies such as wind and solar, your footprint could be less. (The use of biofuels, however, if they are heavily irrigated, could be another story.) You would also get points, or a footprint reduction, for using energy-star appliances and taking other energy-efficiency measures.

Washing a car uses about 150 gallons of water, so by washing less frequently you can cut back your water use.

A gallon of gasoline takes nearly 13 gallons of water to produce. Combine your errands, car pool to work, or take public transportation to reduce both your energy and water use.

Flying from Los Angeles to San Francisco, about 700 miles round-trip, could cost you more than 9,000 gallons of water, or enough for almost 2,000 average dishwasher loads.

A cross-country airplane trip (about 6,000 miles) could be worth more than 1,700 standard toilet flushes.

Traveling from Chicago to Istanbul is just about 10,000 miles round trip, costing enough water to run electricity in the average American home for one person for more than five years.

According to recent reports, nearly 5% of all U.S. water withdrawals are used to fuel industry and the production of many of the material goods we stock up on weekly, monthly, and yearly.

It takes about 100 gallons of water to grow and process a single pound of cotton, and the average American goes through about 35 pounds of new cotton material each year. Do you really need that additional T-shirt?

One of the best ways to conserve water is to buy recycled goods, and to recycle your stuff when you're done with it. Or, stick to buying only what you really need.

The water required to create your laptop could wash nearly 70 loads of laundry in a standard machine.

Recycling a pound of paper, less than the weight of your average newspaper, saves about 3.5 gallons of water. Buying recycled paper products saves water too, as it takes about six gallons of water to produce a dollar worth of paper.

Calculate Your Water Footprint

This tool helps calculate your water footprint based on how much water you use at home, for transportation, and as a consumer.

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1994 was the year that federally mandated low-flow showerheads, faucets, and toilets started to appear on the scene in significant numbers. How can you conform to the standards and help increase energy efficiency in your home? On average, 10 gallons per day of your water footprint (or 14% of your indoor use) is lost to leaks.

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People should do their best to conserve water for three reasons. The less water used or wasted by people, the less clean water will become contaminated. In some cases, using excess amounts of water puts strain on septic and sewage systems, leading to contamination of groundwater, as untreated, dirty water seeps from the sewage system into the ground.

Water conservation reduces energy use and can even save households money. Most families pay to use water in their cities. The less water a household uses, the less they have to pay. Appliances that use water, such as washing machines and dishwashers, also use a considerable amount of energy.

Conserving water now allows cities to plan for more efficient use of the water resources in the future. If most of an area's clean water is wasted, there will not be water for future generations to use, meaning the city will need to come up with new ways to produce clean, fresh water, which will ultimately be at the taxpayers' expense.

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Approximately 5 to 10 percent of American homes have water leaks that drip away 90 gallons a day or more! Many of these leaks reside in old fixtures, such as leaky toilets and faucets. In fact, water lost by these leaky residences could be reduced by more than 30,000 gallons if new, efficient fixtures were installed. If the 5 percent of American homes that leak the most corrected those leaks—it could save more than 177 billion gallons of water annually!

Using WaterSense labeled faucets or faucet accessories could reduce a household's faucet water use by more than 500 gallons annually—that's enough water to do 14 loads of laundry.

WaterSense labeled faucets and faucet accessories can reduce excessive flow volumes by more than 30 percent without sacrificing performance.

If one in every 10 homes in the United States were to install WaterSense labeled faucets or faucet accessories in their bathrooms, it could save 6 billion gallons of water, and more than $50 million in the energy costs to supply, heat, and treat that water.

If all inefficient toilets in U.S. homes were converted to WaterSense labeled models, we could save more than 640 billion gallons of water per year—the equivalent to 15 days of flow over Niagara Falls.