Here at Happier Beauty, we’re celebrating Sustainable Water Week, which looks at how we can manage our water resources in an ethical manner, so everyone has access to enough water – from domestic households to agriculture and industrial sectors.
What is Water Sustainability?
Water sustainability embraces the need to monitor and moderate the precious resource that is water, while still acknowledging the importance of water-use on a day to day basis.
Water sustainability doesn’t mean going without. It just means a water supply will remain consistent, despite the ongoing impact of climate change, which includes lack of rainfall/drought, or too much rain. Water sustainability also means being flood resilient, that supply and demand is adhered to, and the water delivery process is as efficient (yet ethical) as possible.
Water sustainability also looks into combining traditional water treatment technologies with modern renewable energy sources. In a nutshell, it studies how we and future generations can still receive adequate and clean water, as and when we need it, without being unethical or causing further environmental strain or damage.
Water sustainability also means water discipline, not water deprivation. It means every person across the world having affordable access to the minimum 20 to 50 litres of daily water that is required for a human being to sustain life without further harming the environment.
How Can We Practice Water Sustainability?
To practice good water sustainability, we need to start today – and we all need to get involved. Here are ten ways we can practice water sustainability at home to do our part.
- Turn off taps when not in use. This will save water, as well as money (if you’re on a meter).
- Only run your dishwasher and washing machine when there is a full load to be cleaned.
- Reduce shower time to just washing your body/hair and not spending unnecessary time under the shower head.
- Only use/buy more energy-efficient items going forward, including water-saving devices.
- Use a water softener to combat hard water problems (if you live in a hard water area).
- Check all your plumbing sources and fix any leaks there may be.
- Use drip irrigation instead of a hose to water your plants.
- Reuse water for landscape gardens. Collecting rainwater is a great way to do this.
- Don’t keep the tap running when brushing your teeth. Turn off and on, or use a small bowl of water to dip your brush into.
Where is water being used across the world?
Agriculture
The agriculture industry is one of the highest water consumers, with an estimated 70% of global water usage being taken up by the world’s farmers. Naturally, farming relies on water to be productive, so this is a fundamental area world leaders are looking into managing in terms of water-use.
Industry & Energy
Combined, the industry and energy sectors account for 20% of water demand, with more-developed countries having a much larger proportion of freshwater withdrawals for industry than lesser-developed countries (which are agriculture-dominant). While the aim is to ensure lesser-developed countries begin to receive the water supplies they need, it needs to be done in a way that doesn’t cause further environmental harm or makes the demand for water across the world unrealistic.
Domestic
While municipal water only makes up around 10% of water usage, worldwide (which may seem like a small percentage), this is only because it is that estimated 748 million people in lesser-developed countries remain without access to a decent or improved source of water, and an estimated 2.5 billion still remain without access to either proper or improved sanitation sources.
Everyone deserves easy access to water without environmental consequences, so how can this be achieved? By more-developed countries being more mindful of their water consumption.
Here at Happier, we believe happiness and wellbeing shouldn’t come with great sacrifice. We all appreciate the need for daily maintenance and that resources, such as water and hard materials, are a requirement. That’s why Happier Beauty tubes are made from aluminium – because it is one of the easiest and cheapest materials to recycle. And unlike plastic, recycled aluminium will still remain sturdy and robust when re-used time and time again. To find out more about how we’re doing our bit for the earth – and how you can too – click me.