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WORLD WATER DAY 2014: THE WATER-ENERGY NEXUS

Water is free! Then why do we pay for it?

Bottled water costs well in excess of 1,000 times that of tap water, even with a filter!

The energy used to pump, process, transport and refrigerate bottled water is over 50 million barrels of oil every year.

When you pick up a water bottle at the supermarket, hold it up and imagine it filled ¼ with oil. That's how much in fossil fuels it took just to manufacture it!

DID YOU KNOW?

The amount of energy generated to create bottled water is enormous and expensive.

We pay for the ENERGY needed to create bottled water NOT for the WATER.

This shows that, water and energy form an inter dependent relationship.

WHICH BASICALLY MEANS…

SAVE WATER SAVE ENERGY

SAVE ENERGY SAVE WATER

THIS INTERDEPENDENT RELATIONSHIP IS KNOWN AS THE WATER-ENERGY

NEXUS

WHAT IS A NEXUS?

• A NEXUS IS A CONNECTION OR SERIES OF CONNECTIONS LINKING TWO OR MORE THINGS.

The water-energy nexus is the relationship between how much water is used to generate and transmit energy, and how much energy it takes to collect, clean, pump, transport, store, and dispose of water.

Source: www.unwater.org

Source: www.unwater.org

Source: www.unwater.org

This is Aabid Surti. He is 78 years old and is National Award winning cartoonist and playwright.

He has also saved more than 1.75 million litres of water to date!

HOW DID HE DO IT?

Every Sunday, he, along with a plumber, goes to nearby buildings in his community and fixes leaking pipes and taps. For free.

A dripping tap may waste up to 72 litres of water annually!

“I read an article that if one drop of water is wasted every second, 1,000 litres goes down the drain every month. An image of 1,000 bottles of 1‐litre Bisleri bottles flashed before my eyes.” – Aabid Surti.

He could not ignore that image.

So every year, Surti visits an average of 1,600 homes and fixes around 400 leaky taps!

SO WHAT CAN YOU DO TO HELP SAVE WATER AND ENERGY?

LET’S THINK BEYOND THE SINK!Let’s think beyond the sink!

1.Conduct a water audit in your home and school to see how much water is being used and wasted.

2.Fix leaking taps and pumps immediately .

3. Use less heated water in homes and businesses.Heating water uses a great deal of energy. Small things magnified a million times over — like washing clothes with cold water or taking shorter showers — saves large amounts of energy.

4. Use energy-saving appliances.

Source: http://cleantechnica.com/2008/06/15/seven-ways-to-save-energy-by-saving-water/

6. Reduce your consumption of bottled water.The energy used to pump, process, transport and refrigerate bottled water is over 50 million barrels of oil every year.

7. Eat more vegetables and grains; cut down on the chicken.Animal farming takes up more energy and water.

Source: http://cleantechnica.com/2008/06/15/seven-ways-to-save-energy-by-saving-water/