We’re going through an exercise here at the Cloonan/Willett household to see where we can save a few bucks. We looked at where we might be able to reduce consumption: power, water, fuel, mobile data, natural gas. This led to examining the bills and costs for these items, leading me to this bit of irony.
Water is precious to life. Most of the body you live in consists of water. You can live for weeks without food, but only a week without water.
Clean water is a rare thing. According to charity:water, diseases caused by unsafe water kill more people than all forms of violence. 90% of those deaths are in children under five – our most vulnerable.
Agriculture requires millions of gallons of water. The bananas you put on your cereal take 102 gallons of water to produce one pound. Feel guilty about that? Forget about guacamole. Avocados require 220 gallons per pound. A pound of chicken takes 815 gallons. (From treehugger.com)
Those are the tip of the iceberg for water use. From lunch to laundry to lawns, water is used for everything. But why am I getting into this?
Demand for clean water is high. According to many sources, the supply of clean water is scarce.
Any commodity with a high demand and a low supply should command a high price, right? Let me get back to my water bill.
I pay less than one-half of one cent for each gallon of water.
Free market forces aren’t always the answer. I’d be willing to bet if water prices were less regulated and subject to basic market forces of supply and demand, we’d all be a lot more careful with how we use it.