Drinking Water and water use

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Drinking water and water use
1. How much water should you drink every day?
The amount of water we consume daily depends on the activities people carry out, the climatic conditions, health, and gender. Women should take up to 91 ounces while men 125 ounces daily. The amounts vary with the activities one undertakes and health condition (“Drinking Water Quality: What You Need to Know”).
2. Is tap water safe?
As much as people need to consume water every day to have a healthy functioning body, there is the question if the water consumed from taps it contaminated and suitable for human consumption. Public water systems in the country undergo a high level of scrutiny, and the water is always tasted before it is pumped to homes and business consumption. The water flowing through the pipes is susceptible to contamination from bacteria and other metallic compounds. It is impossible to eliminate all the contaminants in the water being supplied by pipes. Therefore, tap water consumed by households is not entirely safe for consumption since there are still contaminants even though they are in small proportions (“Drinking Water Quality: What You Need to Know”).
3 Is bottled drinking water safe?
Like tap and well water, there are still chances that bottle water will contain small levels of contaminants despite the high level of scrutiny done on them as claimed by the bottle companies. The body in charge with regulating bottled water that is the FDA, as still unable to monitor the testing programs as the EPA does with the tap water hence chances of water being contaminated during testing is high and thus people are likely to consume contaminated water.

4. Provide some feedback on your thoughts about drinking water. Is water as good as sports drinks for hydration? Share your source.
Drinking water can be tedious, and in many instances, people hardly consume the right amount of water because it is tasteless. Sports drinks, on the other hand, have a flavor that motivates one to keep on drinking until they exceed the threshold required per day. For people taking part in sports activity or dehydrating activities, there is need to be consistent with drinking water even if the body does feel like it. According to Levin-Epstein, sports water has nutrients such as sodium that need to be regulated in the body as more water is consumed. Consuming water that lacks or have very little amouuyn6t of sodium is likely to cause hyponatremia among people who participate in strenuous activities. Boston argues that consuming water is not as good as taking sports drinks since a lot of water in the body tends to trigger the kidney to block the anti-diuretic hormone necessary for prevents excessive loss of water in the body through urinating.
Now perform a Personal Water Use Audit. Keep track of the water you use for a 24-hour period using the categories and average water usage provided below. If you have water using devices on which the exact consumption is noted, substitute the actual figures for the estimates given. Water use is usually calculated either as a total amount for each type of usage, or by using gallons per minute, or g.p.m.
Calculating Your Total Daily Usage. You are to extrapolate your daily use into weekly and annual usage. Use the figures found on https://www3.epa.gov/watersense/pubs/indoor.html You will also be able to calculate your household, United States, and World usage. Answer the questions. Using the information from step two, calculate the percentage for each type of use.
Use the following example for your calculations: (total water used per device/total water used daily) X 100. Do this for each device used providing water in your house.
Activity Frequency Water consumption per activity Total Daily water consumption
Dishwashing (Automatic dishwasher) Number of sessions dishes were washed = 2 5.8 gallons per session 11.6 gallons
Laundry Number of times laundry was done = 1 15 gallons per laundry session 15 gallons
Toilet Number of flushes = 5 1.2 gallons per flush 6 gallons
Shower Number of times I showered = 2
Average time in the shower during each session = 15 minute 2.5 gallons per minute per session 75 gallons
Cooking Number of cooking sessions = 3 Morning = 0.5 gallons
Afternoon = 1 gallon
Evening = 1.5 gallons 3 gallons
Faucet Total time spent = 20 minute 1.5 gallons per minute 30 gallons
Total 140.6 gallons
5. What single type of use accounted for the most water use? Please include your audit data and show your calculations since they will be relevant to the follow-on questions.
The activity that had the highest amount of water used was showering at 75 gallons per day
6. Let’s assume that you use roughly the same amount of water every day of the year. How many gallons would you consume in a year?
Assuming every month has 30 days then consumption per year would be
140.6×30×12=50616 gallons7. Is this a realistic assumption? Why or why not?
This is not a realistic assumption since not every day do people do activities such as laundry, spend the same amount of water in cooking and washing dishes. On several occasions, some people prefer skipping cooking and eating take outs hence the consumption of water in cooking and washing dishes reduces. Also, cases of tap leakages and repairs tend to increase the amount of water consumption, and they cannot be captured under the computation since they do not happen on a daily or weekly basis.
8. How much would your household use?
My household consists of my two brothers of almost same age, a sister and my father and mother. In total, we are six. If the consumption of water is nearly the same for everyone, and laundry is done four times a month, and there is an insignificant difference between the highest and the lowest amouyn6t of water consumed during dishwashing, the daily consumption rate is given as;
Activity Frequency Water consumption per activity Number of people in the household Total Daily water consumption
Dishwashing (Automatic dishwasher) Number of sessions dishes were washed = 2 7.3 gallons per session (Everyone) – 14.6 gallons
Laundry Number of times laundry was done = 1 15 gallons per laundry session per person 6 90 gallons
Toilet Number of flushes = 5 1.2 gallons per flush per person 6 36 gallons
Shower Number of times I showered = 2
Average time in the shower during each session = 15 minute 2.5 gallons per minute per session per person 6 450 gallons
Cooking Number of cooking sessions = 3 Morning = 1.5 gallons
Afternoon = 2.2 gallon
Evening = 3.5 gallons (Everyone) – 7.2 gallons
Faucet Total time spent = 20 minute 2.5 gallons per minute (Everyone) – 50 gallons
Total 647.8 gallons
9. How can this process of estimation be made better?
The estimation can be improved by collecting data on any leakages or excess water that drips from the taps. Also, the exact amount of water used for all the activities can be measured through attaching a meter gadget after the valve to record any amount of water that is used in each event before it gets out. As for the household, the data on everyone should be collected separately and later combined to compute the daily usage for all the members.
10. In the US a typical family of four uses about 375 gallons per day of household water. How does your household compare?
Having a population count of 6, out household is slightly bigger than that of a typical American family. In this case, the daily use of water in the house is expected to be more. However, the approximations assumed that the rate consumption of water is the same throughout the household will result in a figure that deviates from the research values 375 gallons.

Works Cited
Boston, Gabriella. “Hydration: Water vs. sports drink.” The Washington Post, WP Company, 14 Aug. 2012, www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/wellness/hydration-water-vs-sports-drink/2012/08/10/7f2f71dc-dda1-11e1-af1d-753c613ff6d8_story.html?utm_term=.83906538d8e8.
“Drinking Water Quality: What You Need to Know.” WebMD, WebMD, www.webmd.com/women/safe-drinking-water#2.
Levin-Epstein, Amy. “Sports Drinks vs. Water.” Men’s Fitness, Men’s Fitness, 4 June 2015, www.mensfitness.com/nutrition/what-to-drink/sports-drinks-vs-water.
“Start Saving | US EPA.” US EPA, 2018, https://www3.epa.gov/watersense/pubs/indoor.html. Accessed 23 Feb 2018.