What Water Means To Me

Knock, knock, knock, knock…

”Come on get out of the shower!”

Can you imagine hearing this every time you have to take a shower? Well that’s me. I hear this from my dad whenever I take a shower because he is a water source engineer and he cares a lot about water. I also hear this from my grandparents when I go visit them in Jordan during the summer.

In Jordan, there is not a lot of water. It is one of the most water scarce countries in the world. So you have to be considerate when you use water. When I go to Jordan, there are big tanks on top of their houses and people rely on the tanks because they only get filled up once a week, so they have to be mindful about the amount of water they use. Even the tap water in Jordan is not clean for drinking. Jordanian people use water dispensers to have clean drinking water. All this showed me why I should conserve water.

Conserving water is important because we need water for everything. For example, we need water for life, for food production and for electricity. So here are a few ways to conserve water. The first way to conserve water is to take shorter showers. Taking shorter showers doesn’t only save water but saves your money. Did you know that a 5 minute shower takes up to 10-25 gallons of water? The second way to conserve water is to switch to low flow faucets and toilets. Old inefficient toilets can use over 6 gallons per flush. But the newer versions use as little as 1.3 gallons per flush. Finally, the third way to conserve water is to get high-efficiency washing machines. High-efficiency washing machines can save more than 2,000 gallons of water per year compared to a normal washing machine.

In conclusion, just because you live in a place that has plenty of water resources doesn’t mean you can waste water. There is no guarantee that we will have it in the future. Climate change can have an effect on how much fresh water will be available for everyone in the future. Now I will pinky promise my parents and grandparents to take shorter showers.