Water Water Everywhere

August 20th, 2008 |

There I was wandering through the online version of the Guardian when I was stuck by a headline and so clicked to read: ‘Revealed: the massive scale of UK’s water consumption’.

The environment group WWF will tell a meeting of international experts in Stockholm that the average British person uses 150 litres of water a day for washing and drinking. 150 litres? In proper money that’s almost 33 gallons!

Quick calculation here of my own usage…

Quick Shower = max 6 gallons; Flush loo about 6 times a day = max 4 gallons; Fill kettle for max 4 cups of tea per day = 1/4 gallon; Wash dishes in sink = 1/2 gallon; …er… the washing machine goes on once a week so that probably uses 8 gallons so that’s a gallon-ish a day. Don’t drink water as fish do things in it. Total 12 Gallons or 60 pints.

Then they point out that I am supposedly using 4,645 litres of ‘virtual water’ every day. WHAT! 1022 gallons extra! A further 8176 pints! To produce the food that I eat.

What a load of tosh.

Got to run as the swimming pool needs filling :)

Sorry, comments are closed for this article.