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Water conservation refers to reducing use of fresh water, through technological or social methods. The goals of water conservation efforts include:
- Sustainability - To ensure availability for future generations, the withdrawal of fresh water from an ecosystem should not exceed its natural replacement rate.
- Energy conservation - Water pumping, delivery and wastewater treatment facilities consume a significant amount of energy. In some parts of the world (for example, southern California) over 10% of total electricity consumption is devoted to water management.
- Habitat conservation - Minimizing human water use helps to preserve fresh water habitats for local wildlife and migrating waterfowl, as well as reducing the need to build new dams and other water diversion infrastructure.
Social solutions
Higher pricing of water, perhaps through the removal of subsidies, is sometimes proposed as a way of encouraging more efficient use of water.
Water conservations campaigns, such as Palathulli in Kerala, India, or the recent campaigns in Sydney, Australia, can be effective.
Technological solutions
- efficient shower heads (sometimes called energy-efficient shower heads as they also use less energy, due to less water being heated).
- wastewater reuse or recycling, for example:
- reuse of graywater for flushing toilets or for the garden, or
- recycling of wastewater through purification at a water treatment plant. ''See also Wastewater#Reuse
- low-flush toilets, composting toilets and waterless urinals can have a very large impact, particularly in Western societies, as conventional Western toilets use large volumes of water.
Catchment management
Water catchment management measures include:
- recharge pits, which capture rainwater and runoff and use it to recharge groundwater supplies.
See also
External links
"Water conservation"