It is a little known fact that the United States today uses far less water per person, and less water in total, than we did twenty-five years ago.
That is water expert Peter Gleick, quoted in the excellent article "The Last Drop," (not on-line), from the 23 October The New Yorker.
I worked for Dr. Gleick for a summer. He’s awesome.
yeah, moving production of food to other countries has saved water
One word: low flow toilets.
Oh, sorry to double post … but my local water company is offering a $100 rebate right now on water-efficient washing machines. I plan on taking advantage, and replacing my old (increasingly noisy) machine:
http://www.mwdoc.com/residential_efficiency.htm
(after i find the offer on-line I see that they are subsidizing those toilets as well.)
Paul, here in Colorado we have been suffering drought conditions of varying severity the last few years, and almost all water-conservation measures have focused on outdoor water use, e.g. limiting lawn watering. Other than penalties for total water usage exceeding a certain (arbitrary) amount, nothing has been directed at indoor use other than possibly subsidies as odograph mentioned.
My theory has always been that this is due to observability rather than effectiveness. Of course, the most effective measure would simply be to price water at something other than a nonsensically low flat rate, but that is politically infeasible.
I liked the toilets they have in Australia – you can choose between a light flush or a heavy flush, depending on need. Much better than a light flush no matter what.
There are many reasons why this is true. Toilets that are made now by law can use no more than 1.6 gallons per flush. We have also started depending on other countries for items like food that uses alot of water to produce. Together these eliminate much of water used in the lives of people today.
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