Celebrate National Drinking Water Week by Protecting the Source

Freese and Nichols is partnering with the American Water Works Association and the water community to recognize the vital role drinking water plays in our daily lives.

Every day we work with you to make our water safer, cleaner and available in your faucet. As part of National Drinking Water Week, we looked into simple ways you can conserve water for future generations.

This year’s theme is to “Protect the Source,” so we encourage you to think about where your drinking water is coming from, whether it’s a reservoir, river or well.

“Protecting our water sources on an individual level is about making a concerted effort to be mindful of our own runoff contributions, such as not washing our cars at home or fixing a leak in our car, properly disposing of batteries and light bulbs,” said Aaron Conine, W/WW Transmission and Utilities engineer. “These things sounds small but when multiplied by a population, they can be significant.”

By 2025, 1.8 billion people will be living in countries or regions with absolute water scarcity, according to UN-Water.

“Safeguarding water by using it wisely is everyone’s responsibility,” said AWWA Chief Executive Officer David LaFrance. “Conserving water at home means we’re saving our precious water supplies and, in the long run, protecting our source water, too.”

It’s essential to avoid waste through water conservation practices to protect our precious source water. Here are tips from our Water/Wastewater design team to help you to save water year round.

• Fix dripping faucets and running toilets. At one drip per second, a faucet can leak 3,000 gallons in a year.
• Use old pet water to water plants.
• Set a goal to reduce your showers by one to two minutes and continue until your showers are less than five minutes long.
• Eliminate litter to improve the quality of water.
• Reduce the amount of wasted food, which usually requires irrigation water and or water for processing.
• Fill your flowerbeds with water conscious plants.
• Dispose of old medications and hazardous waste properly.
• Add a rain sensor to lawn sprinkler systems. There are a variety of options now that will help you not have sprinklers on while it’s raining or the day after it rained.
• Turn off the water when you brush your teeth.
• Collect rainfall for irrigation in a screened container.