Autoshine
Australia is one of many companies that has water
conservation at heart.
With
the support of the Australian Water Association,
savewater.com.au,
Sydney Water Board, Planet
Ark, Environmental Protection
Authority and the Australian
Conservation Foundation – Autoshine
Australia recommends Australian households to
use our revolutionary Waterless car cleaning product
and help conserve your water.
Of all the water in the
world, only 3% is fresh. Less than a third
of 1% of this is
available to humans. The rest is frozen in glaciers
or polar ice caps, or is deep within the earth,
beyond our reach. To put it another way, if 100
litres represents the world's water, less than
a half of a teaspoon of it is fresh water available
for our use.
However, fresh water is essential to our existence,
it allows us to produce food, manufacture goods
and sustain our health. In fact, about 60
percent of our body is comprised of water.
Global water consumption has risen almost
tenfold since 1900, and many parts of
the world are now reaching the limits of their
supply. World population is expected to increase
by 45% in the next
thirty years, whilst freshwater runoff is expected
to increase by 10%.
UNESCO has predicted that by 2020 water
shortage will be a serious worldwide problem.
One third of the world's population are already
facing problems due to both water shortage and
poor drinking water quality. Effects include massive
outbreaks of disease, malnourishment and crop
failure. Furthermore, excessive use of water has
seen the degradation of the environment costing
the world billions of dollars.
Australia is the
driest continent on earth (excluding Antarctica),
but we are the greatest consumers of water per
capita.
The average annual rainfall in Australia is
469 mm/yr, well below the global average of 746mm/yr.
70% of our continent is classified as desert or
semi-desert, with little or no precipitation.
Australians use
more the than 1 million litres of freshwater per
person each year, or about 24,000 Giga Litres.
That's enough to fill the Sydney Harbour 48
times over! About 70% is attributed to agricultural
irrigation, 9% to other rural uses, 9% to industrial
uses and 12% to domestic use.
The hidden uses
of water- seeing beyond the tap
There is often a high amount of 'embodied water'
associated with many items we use or consume.
For example:
-
It takes 41 500 litres to
produce a kilo of meat
-
It takes 500 litres to produce
one orange
-
It takes 1 340 000 litres
to produce 1 tonne of aluminium
-
It takes 50 litres to produce
a copy of Saturday's newspaper
-
It takes about 5000 litres
of water to create one kilogram of rice.
-
It takes 4 litres to produce
a bottle of beer
Are the facts scaring you a little?...
Well the bottom line is, we all have to look
at our national water crisis with a willingness
to do something about it and to conserve as
much water as possible!
WATER
IS LIFE…
SAVE EVERY DROP!
Source: Archer,
J., Hodges, J., and LeHunt, R., (1993) 'The
Water Efficient Garden'.
Random House, Milsons Point, NSW – Australia.
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