It is something which permeates every facet of our lives –
it is the foundation of hydration, our food, our heating and cooling
systems, our construction, our clothing and shelter.
And we’re using A LOT of it. According to Denver Water, the
City & County of Denver uses 265,000 acre-feet of water. Imagine a football
field with a foot of water standing on it – then picture 265,000 of those.
Let’s put it another way. The average person in Denver uses 168 gallons of water
per day! And lest you think its all those restaurants and businesses
squandering all that water, in all reality, residential (single and multi-family
homes) usage accounts for over 65% of all usage (172,000 football fields full
of water!).
To top it all off, 55% of all water usage at the residential
level is for outdoor irrigation/use, i.e. your sprinkler system.
A quick scenario to bring this home. My wife and I recently purchased our
first home in the Barnum neighborhood in August. The average sprinkler head sprays about 3.5 gallons per minute, and the home had a sprinkler
system consisting of about 10 heads. Now, if we watered as per Denver Water’s Stage 2
watering rules (in effect as of April 1st this year), which is
only twice per week, we’d use about
27,000 gallons from May through September and spend about $75 in water bills.
Now, if we switched entirely over to drip irrigation and
grew vegetables (which we’re doing), and watered 45 minutes every single day, in that same five month period we’d use
approximately 3,200 gallons and spend $8.32!!! Not only would we save $67, we’d
also save enough water to provide the average Denver home with 141 days of
water!!!! Not to mention all the money we’d be saving on food from the wondrous
produce we’ll be harvesting.
And this is a reality for 200 low-income families this year
through Revision’s Re:farm Denver program. 200 families are receiving
drip-irrigation systems, using less water, saving money, and are empowered to
lead healthier lives. Want to help them out? Donate now.
