Have you ever heard about “Invisible Water?” Okay, let’s learn what it is and why it is important.
China, with 20 percent of the world’s population and only 7 percent of the world’s freshwater resources, is experiencing severe water scarcity. In the 1950s, there were 50,000 rivers in China. Today, there are only 23,000. These rivers have disappeared because they have either dried out or polluted.
Much of the water in China, and other parts of the world, is used to grow food and to manufacture consumer goods. In fact, you eat 3,496 litres every day. Compare that with your domestic consumption of water for drinking, cooking, washing, cleaning and flushing a toilet which is 137 litres.
Food and consumer goods require a lot of more water than most of us realize. Did you know that, we drink 140 litres of water every time we drink a cup of coffee?
Or, what if I also told you that, we eat 15,500 litres every time we buy 1kg of beef? Most of that water is used to grow the roughages that the cow eats.
That isn’t all; did you also know that the average person uses 10 litres of water per minute every time s/he takes a shower? Most of the water we use is invisible because we aren’t aware of its existence in the production of all foods and goods.
So you see, 92 percent of the water we use every day is buried or hidden in the food we eat.Kids who know about this will become more responsible citizens of the world. Once they learn about actions that can be taken to reduce water consumption, kids change their behavior and more than 70 percent become advocates to teach others.
To end the year on a positive note, Thirst is organizing Mission 2015. Participants each pledge to save 2015 liters of water by participating in 5 simple challenges. This is your chance to contribute in a little way to the goal to save water for our planet and future generation. Fellow thirst on Weibo, Weixin, Facebook and we chat at www.thirst4water.org
Thirst is an NGO which is creating a water-wise generation of youth in China. We facilitate free ‘We Water Experience’ workshops and club activities at schools across the country. This program is sponsored by the Foundation for UNESCO and Inditex. Please contact us for more details. Visit http://thirst4water.org/en
Photo: Wikimedia Commons