How Much Water Do You Really Use?
The Truth May Shock You

New York, NY///January 8, 2008///America's waterscape is changing. Climate shifts and population increases are putting pressure on our fresh water sources, leading to record-setting droughts and unprecedented water shortages. Despite the recent surge in media coverage about our water problems, most Americans still don't realize that they have a role to play in addressing the problem. But a new website called H2O Conserve (www.h2oconserve.org) is coming online to show us that it's time to do something about our 1,000-plus gallon-a-day habit.

Every aspect of our lives is connected to water, and we use enormous amounts of it to make everything from electricity to food to household products. For example, it takes 24 gallons of water to make a single pound of plastic, and over a hundred gallons to make a pound of cotton. Even the electricity we use is tied to water - with power plants consuming 40 percent of our country's fresh water resources.

The website's H2O Calculator takes all this into account, and after you answer a few questions it reveals just how much water your lifestyle requires. How much do you think you use? Well, the average American guzzles an astonishing 1,189.3 gallons per day according to the calculator's measure - not just a drop in the bucket!

"By allowing visitors to calculate their "water footprint" - including the water they use at home, the water used to produce their food, energy and household products, we hope to get people thinking about water in a whole new way," says Wenonah Hauter, Executive Director of Food and Water Watch. "This great educational tool incorporates actions people can take with broad informational resources on issues such as water pollution, our water infrastructure and bottled water."

After using the calculator, visitors are invited to learn more about our water system and important water issues. It also provides tips for saving water at home - a valuable resource given the recent water shortages and droughts that many Americans are facing these days.

H2O Conserve was developed by a group of public interest organizations, including Food & Water Watch, the Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility, GRACE, and the Johns Hopkins Center for a Livable Future. In the words of Dr. Robert S. Lawrence, Director of the Center for a Livable Future, "H2O Conserve provides practical information and tools for the average American to understand and act to conserve water."

Food & Water Watch - Food & Water Watch is committed to creating an economically and environmentally viable future, by working with grassroots organizations and other allies around the world to stop the corporate control of our food and water. www.foodandwaterwatch.org

GRACE - GRACE works with research, policy, consumer and grassroots communities to raise public awareness and advance innovative solutions for creating an economically and environmentally viable future.

Center for a Livable Future - The Johns Hopkins Center for a Livable Future promotes research and develops and communicates information about the complex interrelationships among water, diet, food production, environment and human health while advancing an ecological perspective in reducing threats to the health of the public and promotes policies that protect health, the global environment and the ability to sustain life for future generations. www.jhsph.edu/clf

CONTACT:
Jen Mueller, jmueller@fwwatch.org, (202) 683-2467

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