Water Facts



  • More than half of the water we use in the warmer months is used for outdoor watering.
  • 97% of the world's water is salty or otherwise undrinkable. Another 2% is locked in ice caps and glaciers. That leaves just 1% for consumption by all living creatures, including plants and animals.
  • If everyone in the US used just one less gallon of water per shower every day, we could save some 85 billion gallons of water per year.
  • If everyone in the US flushed the toilet just one less time per day, we could save a lake full of water about one mile long, one mile wide and four feet deep.
  • Water acts as a natural insulator to regulate the earth's temperature.
  • Only 1% of the earth's water is available for drinking; 2% is currently frozen.
  • Water is the only substance on earth found naturally in three forms - solid, liquid, and gas.
  • One gallon of water weighs approximately 8 pounds.
  • Every glass of water brought to your table in a restaurant requires another two glasses of water to wash and rinse the glass. Since nearly 70 million meals are served each day in US restaurants, we'd save more than 26 million gallons of water if only one person in four declined the complimentary glassful.
  • If you sprinkle your lawn too lightly, it prevents water from getting deep into the soil. The grass then develops shallower roots and becomes less drought-resistant. It's better to deep soak your grass, but doing it less frequently.
  • Getting a cover for your pool can help prevent evaporation. An averaged-size pool with average sun and wind exposure loses approximately 1,000 gallons of water per month. A pool cover cuts the loss by 90%.
  • You can survive about a month without food, but only 5 to 7 days without water.
  • 70% of your skin is water.
  • A tomato is 95% water.
  • A pineapple is 80% water.
  • A dairy cow must drink 4 gallons of water to produce 1 gallon of milk.
  • It is possible to drink water that was here in the dinosaur era.
  • On average, a person uses about 100 gallons of water a day.
  • A five-minute shower takes 10 to 25 gallons of water.
  • An automatic dishwasher uses 9 to 12 gallons of water to wash one load.
  • 1.5 to 7 gallons of water are used to flush a toilet. Newly manufactured toilets can only flush a maximum of 1.6 gallons of water.
  • 2,072 gallons of water are used to make four new car tires.
  • 300 million gallons of water are needed to produce a single days supply of the world's newsprint.
  • The first water pipes in the U.S. were made from charred bored logs.