Water Diary

On your chosen day, record your use of the following:

•                Water for washing (self, clothes etc – how long in the shower etc) and miscellaneous tasks such as watering plants

•                all food and drink consumed

•                transportation of any kind

•                any durable items purchased

Calculate your water footprint.

For this blog assignment, I calculated my water footprint after recording my daily usage of water using two different websites: the National Geographic Water Calculator, and the Water Footprint Network Water Footprint Calculator. According to the National Geographic calculator my total footprint was 1809 gallons per day, which is below the US average of 2088. My footprint consists of home (75/ 100 US average), diet (1009/ 1056 US average), energy ( 555/700 US average), and stuff (170/ 232 US average). According to the Water Footprint Network my footprint is 2035 meter-cube per capita, which is also below the US average of 2842. It is divided as food (1839), domestic (98), and industrial (98). 

Also focusing on the US average of 2842 meter-cube per capita, 20.2% of which falls outside of the country, is a lot higher than the global average, which is 1385 meter-cube per capita. This is not surprising, in my opinion, because quite frankly everything can be found in excess in the US, and a lot of everything goes to waste everyday, as opposed to certain countries in the Middle East, where water scarcity is a very big issue. In comparison to the US, Turkey has a footprint average of 1642 meter-cube per capita, 21.1% of which falls outside the country. Iraq has no statistics available. Syria has a footprint of 2107, which is surprisingly high  for a Middle Eastern country, that also reflects on the governments inefficient water policies. 15.9% is virtual water in Syria's case, as it falls outside of the country.

To be honest, I never really payed much attention to the amount of water that I've used. Even though I technically am from a Middle Eastern country, water is plenty in where I come from. I never had to think about water scarcity, at the same time I was not surprised that it was below the US average. One thing that stood out in my footprint was the overwhelming dominance of food (or diet), mainly meat. I had no idea that the water used to provide us with fresh and clean meat to eat was that much, and that it would make up for a large majority of my footprint. In the future, I will try to be more careful with my water footprint now that I am more aware of it.