Today’s question: Since the amount of water on the globe isn’t changing, and the water in my area is plentiful, why should I conserve?

Plain Talk answer: You’re right about the amount of water being constant, but conservation is still important. For example, suppose you live in a growing community. As the population increases, so does the demand for water. This means that every so often, the water supplier must find another source of water, and in some areas additional sources are hard to find. If everyone conserved, the water demand would not grow as fast, and the need to look for more water would be delayed. This permits the municipality to defer expenditures and to use the money for something else in the meantime. In addition, not all of the water taken from the tap returns immediately to the source. Aquifers, for example, take a long time to recharge and may never come back to their full capacity. You can also look at it this way: when we use water, we generally add contaminants to it. Even though the amount water on the planet is constant, if we use the water for drinking, cleaning and other domestic, commercial and industrial purposes, these contaminants still must be removed.

For more information on this and many other water-related topics, check out Plain Talk About Drinking Water by Dr. James M. Symons.