Keeping the Water You Drink Clean

Keeping our water clean has become a serious issue in the 21st century. More than a fifth of Americans have come into contact with contaminated drinking water in the last 10 years. Considering that we all use water for cooking, cleaning, bathing, and drinking, water is the most important resource on the planet. However, usable water is a rare resource as just less than 0.5% of the water on Earth is fresh and available for consumption.

Drinking water, food production, and energy production use up 94% of the U.S. water supply while Americans use up 322 billion gallons daily. In fact, one American can use up to 82 gallons per day.

All areas of life–from conservation and climate change to money and technology–impact water just as water affects environmental conservation. Climate change has a significant effect on water as water loss is expected to increase to 41% about 40 years from now due to temperature changes.

There have also been issues with our drinking water violating U.S. health standards when it picks up contaminants and spreads diseases to people. More than 21 million Americans have drank contaminated water that has created illnesses in 7.15 million people and caused death for 6,630 others, ultimately costing the country $3.3 billion to provide care.

Drinking water has a crucial impact on our money as well. $18.5 billion in revenue is produced from basic water and sanitation efforts that help lower health costs, increase daily productivity, and reduce the number of premature deaths. Unfortunately, our world uses six times more water compared to 100 years ago due to technology, but this same technology can be used to create water innovations that reduce water pollution.

We need water to survive, but are we doing all we can to help our water survive?