Water Diary
Water is a fundamental need of humans. But not everyone has access to safe and clean water for consumption. People use water through direct intake, but also through a variety of ways of consumption that might not immediately come to mind. This could include the water for personal hygiene, maintaining an outdoor space, and water that is put into growing food or other agricultural purposes. Though people use varying amounts of water in their daily life, many with a high consumption- including myself- have the privilege of not being aware of how great their water footprint truly is.
What is my water footprint?
A few days ago I spent the day tracking my water consumption by noting my food intake, water intake, water for washing, transportation, etc. I was not surprised by just documenting these consumptions. In general, I try to be pretty aware of the effect that my consumption has on the environment. (I also grew up very aware of how long my showers were, as my family has a very small hot water heater!)
As part of the assignment, I took a few surveys about my day to day life in order to determine my estimated water footprint. I ended up being surprised by the survey results. In general, however, I did pretty well in comparison to the US average.
Honestly though I think this is a very rough estimate of my water footprint, especially as I filled out the survey pertaining to my life at college. This skews the data because a lot of services that consume water are already done for me, such as dishwashing or watering the many flower gardens on campus. It was also challenging to fill out the survey because quite simply, I lack the knowledge of campus to do it accurately. I don't know where a lot of the resources that I use come from, and though I know that Dickinson makes a valiant effort to be sustainable, I have no idea how that ties into my own consumption. For example, I know Dickinson uses some solar power, but how much of that do I use directly? Where does that power go?
The survey then broke down my results into specific consumptions of indoor water, outdoor water, and virtual water. With the indoor water category I tended to be slightly over the US average with direct water consumption.
My selection for the bathroom sink usage was the lowest option, but my results were still almost 7 times the US average. I wonder if this is because I assumed that all Dickinson showerheads are 'conventional'-- meaning they flow at 5 gallons/minute or more, as opposed to low-flow showerheads which flow at 2.5 gallons/minute or less. I would like to know how effective/at what flow Dickinson's showerheads are.
My indoor water category was entirely zero because at school I have no lawn, garden, swimming pool, rain barrel, or carwashing. But again, this is just including my direct consumption for these things, even though I benefit from the school's general consumption.
By far the greatest proportion of my water footprint was from 'virtual water', in particular from the meat I consume.
This really stuck with me because I was a vegetarian for about 6 years for various reasons (including environmental), and I only stopped because in high school I studied abroad in Italy for a year. I consider food to be an important part of culture, so in Italy I went back to eating meat in order to fully experience the culture. Even after I got back from my exchange, I continued eating meat-- it was just easier. That has continued to be true at college, where sometimes the easiest way to ensure that my body is properly fueled is by eating the meat that is served. To me, this water survey was a good reminder of the negative environmental effects that eating meat can have. I think in the future I will take more of a harm-reduction approach (avoiding meat when possible, but not completely), to my meat consumption.
I also did another similar survey, but I found it to be significantly less accurate. Though it concluded in generally the same results as the first, this survey required a level of information that I simply didn't know. For example, I have no idea how many kilograms of starchy roots I eat in a week. Or even really how much a kilogram is...
Though my water footprint was okay in comparison to the US average, I think there is more that I could be doing to reduce the environmental impacts of my actions.
The Tigris/Euphrates Valley
Water in the Tigris/Euphrates Valley comes largely from the Tigris and Euphrates rivers. This is where issues of international relations come in, as the rivers flow through Turkey, Syria, and Iraq. My research project for the semester examines the political impacts of Turkey's manipulation of the rivers on the downstream states.
For this assignment, however, I next compared water footprint data from the United States to that from Turkey, Syria, and Iraq. I did so by utilizing the site http://waterfootprint.org/en/resources/interactive-tools/national-water-footprint-explorer/
Here are the statistics from the United States, Turkey, and Syria. Unfortunately Iraq had no available statistics.
As shown above, all three countries have pretty similar rates of internal vs. external water footprint. But the United States has a much higher water footprint per capita (7,800 liters/day) than Syria and Turkey (5,800 and 4,500 liters/day, respectively).
One possible misinterpretation for this data is that a lower water footprint for capita is a positive reflection on the people of that country. But there is much more to it. In general, agriculture requires a significant amount of water. A country needs water as drinking water for citizens, but also to grow and nourish food for them. Often there is not enough water to fill all of a country's needs, especially without ways that are harmful to the environment. Because if a country is unable to grow enough food, they will have to import from other neighboring states. This puts the importer in a position of dependency upon the state that the exports are from, which no state wants. Therefore states are likely to ignore negative environmental implications in favor of independence and security.
A country such as the US may also use a large amount of water for agriculture because it is one of the major exports, and the financial benefit is necessary for the economy.
These reflections only skim the surface (get it...) of analyses of water footprints. There are a range of other social, economic, and political implications, which are best examined through an intersectional lens.
(Re)Sources
I'm glad you brought up that the water footprint estimator site was probably a really rough estimate, I also found that it had a lot of factors that weren't really applicable to me/were hard to estimate right now since I'm living on a college campus. (like watering the lawn, washing dishes, etc...)
ReplyDelete