WATER FOR OUR THIRSTY WORLD: WHY SO MUCH WASTE?
By Allan W. Maynard, - May 2026
The United Nations (May 2026) has declared the dawn of an era of global water bankruptcy, as overuse and irreversible damage pushes many basins beyond recovery. Addressing how water is wasted or misused, is now urgent.
Water for a Thirsty World:
I am a member of a small (21 homes) community water district on Salt Spring Island, BC. There is excellent cooperation among our members in terms of water conservation. Our target daily usage quota for each household, is 150 US gallons per day (or about 1100 gallons per week) but our actuals measured are considerably lower (about 60 gallons per day per house). The average North American daily usage is much more – 300 to 400 gallons per household (2100 to 2800 gallons per week). Our Salt Spring numbers make it clear that cooperation on water conservation works.
WATER FACTS WORTH KNOWING
Note re units – although I favour metric units, most available data in in US gallons. To covert to liters – multiply by 3.8.
- 75% of the world’s surface is covered by water but 97% of that is salty. About 2% is locked up as snow or ice leaving less than 1% to grow our crops, cool our power plants and supply water for domestic use.
- Of the world’s fresh (non-salt) water – 69.6% is frozen, 30.1% is beneath the ground and 1.2% is surface water (rivers, lakes, wetlands)
- Over 70% of the fresh water supply is used for crop irrigation.
- Over the past 70 years the world population has tripled but water use has increased six-fold.
- Millions of the world’s poorest subsist on less than 5 gallons per day
In sub-Sahara Africa, millions (mostly women) walk an average of over 3 miles a day to access water
- Around 2 billion people around the world do not have access to clean and safe drinking water, and approximately 3.6 billion people – 46% of the world's population – lack adequate sanitation services
- 50% of large lakes worldwide have lost water since the early 1990s (with 25% of humanity directly dependent on those lakes)
- 70% of the major aquifers are showing long-term decline
- 30% of the global glacier mass has been lost since 1970, with entire low- and mid-latitude mountain ranges expected to lose functional glaciers altogether within decades
- In the American Southwest, the Colorado River and its reservoirs have become symbols of over-promised water (see photo)
In North America - lawns are the most irrigated “crop”
WATER IS PRECIOUS – THE DEGREE OF WASTE IS UNCONSCIONABLE
- Approximately, 40% to 50% of the water used in agriculture and outdoor landscaping is lost due to poor irrigation practices.
- Over 30% of treated drinking water is lost to leakages within the distribution systems, with some regions experiencing losses as high as 50%. In the U.S., about 6 billion gallons are lost daily – attributed mostly to aging infrastructure. The EU has comparable losses, but some countries (Germany and Denmark) have made major improvements with losses less than 10%. In Metro Vancouver – the loss due to leakage is estimated at 12 to 20%.
- Our Salt Spring system has losses of less than 8% overall, due to careful management and effective leak detection.
- Water is also dramatically overused in wasteful ways – long showers, inefficient appliances, old toilets, and outdoor use.
- Outdoor water use accounts for nearly 30% of total household water consumption in North America, with the vast majority used for irrigation of lawns Our so called “beautiful lawns” are total water hogs – the most irrigated crop in North America.
- Food waste is a hidden source of water waste. Food requires huge amounts of water to produce. One pound of beef – 2000 gallons, nuts 900 gallons, rice 250 gallons, one cheese sandwich 56 gallons.
INDUSTRIAL USE – NEEDS MORE REGULATION
Industries also require enormous amounts of water. A few examples.
- The clothing industry is the second largest consumer of water worldwide (after agriculture. For example, it takes 2000 gallons of water to create one pair of jeans / 750 gallons for one T-shirt/ 5000 gallons to make one kg of cotton. As well, the fashion industry is responsible for 20% of all industrial water pollution
- Large data centers can consume up to 5 million gallons per day, equivalent to the water use of a town populated by 10,000 to 50,000 people. With larger and new AI-focused data centers, water consumption is increasing, alongside energy usage and carbon emissions. In the USA alone there are over 5000 data centers as of 2025.
- The entire global cryptocurrency network annually consumes over around 500 billion gallons of water. A single Bitcoin transaction uses an estimated 4,000 gallons of water. That is enough to fill an entire backyard swimming pool or flush a household toilet over 4,300 times. Per Swipe: By comparison, a single traditional credit card swipe uses only a fraction of a milliliter of water, making crypto's footprint millions of times larger.
QUESTIONS AND CONSIDERATIONS
Policy Level - As is the case with most environmental and resource issues, the most impactful macro- solutions must come from government policies. For instance, addressing the waste of drinking water within distribution systems requires homes to be metered to facilitate leak detection, followed by upgrades to distribution infrastructure. Having homes metered also allows corrective actions against overuse and even the implementation of tiered pricing such that homes pay extra-high prices for water use over mean target allowances.
With agriculture losses, changes to irrigation practises must be made and perhaps even subsidized given the low margins for many farmers.
Industrial use of water requires effective regulation, which is lacking in many regions, especially in developed countries. Unfortunately, the current USA administration is rolling back several environmental regulations worrying scientists across the spectrum of disciplines.
Individual Action - In terms of individual action, every little bit helps. Our small community water system on Salt Spring Island demonstrates what can be achieved by community cooperation and a conservation consciousness. Our bylaws prohibit watering lawns and washing cars. Several members collect rainwater over the winter to be used to outdoor use. Most homes have low flow toilets and shower heads, and these make a major difference. Our overall use per household is about 1/5th of the average North American usage.
Use Priorities - As water systems around the world become more under duress, it will be important to ask about vital priorities. How important are data centers compared to farms growing food? Is crypto currency necessary? Is fast fashion manufacturing (mostly in poorer countries) worth the risk to their already imperiled water supplies? Should golf courses and large resorts be built in desert areas such as the US Southwest one of the areas with definite water bankruptcy?
I conclude with a valuable quote - “Water is life. It’s the briny broth of our origins, the pounding circulatory system of the world. We stake our civilizations on the coasts and mighty rivers. Our deepest dread is the threat of having too little – or too much”. (Barbara Kingsolver – National Geographic).