Water conservation is one of the most important things for the future. Many people don’t understand this which is why it is extremely important to address the problem. It is also worth thinking about the reasons to conserve water. For example, droughts are a huge problem, which ruin the economy and take lives. The second reason is that it can increase the chances of the government taking responsibility and cutting off the water supply. Knowing this, it’s important to let people know how to conserve water without sacrificing much time and money, which is the third and final thing I’m going to talk about.

As I mentioned, I am going to talk about droughts and why they are bad for the environment and economy. Because of droughts, people will run out of water and die. Droughts also cause famines because foods need water to grow, and this can cause deaths. They can also be terrible for the economy because farm owners can’t sell as many crops and because most businesses use water to run, they will have to stop and that is really bad for the economy. Along with this, the food prices will keep going up so that only people with a lot of money can afford to buy food, and people with less money won’t, causing a large gap between the poor and the rich.

The next thing that people have to worry about is that the government can take responsibility for the water use and cut off the water supply. This might seem like something that is very unlikely, but there are multiple examples of this happening. A New York Times article talks about how in 2023 a city in Arizona, Rio Verde, had their water supply cut off by their neighboring city, Scottsdale, because they needed to focus on the water supply for their own residents. Another example which came from a Newsela article was water being cut off in Cape Town, South Africa during early 2018. This happened because the citizens used too much water, so the government cut it off, making people have to go to a local tap water source to get 6.6 gallons of water per day, which is less than half of how much a human needs per day to live. These are definitely possible to happen in your city and it would change very many lives.

It is important to understand that you can contribute to water conservation in the world. One of the best ways to do this is by using low flow devices. For example, low flow toilets and washing machines use much less water than older options. The next thing that will save water is making better choices of food and clothes to buy. Many people don’t understand how big of a difference this can make, but according to an article by the site sustainablecampus.org, it takes 2,700 liters of water to make one cotton shirt. On denverwater.org, an article states that it takes about 1,847 liters of water to make only one pound of beef. Picking different types of food and clothing while shopping can make a huge difference to using less water.

In conclusion, overusing water is a very big deal, because it can cause droughts and even make the government turn off the water. But choosing food, clothes, and devices that use less water can help. Every drop of water counts towards the future of water conservation and can change billions of lives. This is also an opportunity to inform friends and family about conserving water, so they can help save the world too.

References:

New York Times - "Skipped Showers, Paper Plates: An Arizona Suburb's Water Is Cut Off"
Newsela
Florida State University Sustainable Campus - "Clothed in Conservation: Fashion & Water"
Denver Water - "What's the Beef with Water?"