Me and my H2O

In case you were wondering, I slammed my alarm three times this morning. The fourth time didn't happen because the third time I broke my clock. These are pains of waking up in the morning, which I am sure you can relate to as well. After rolling out of bed, I follow my typical morning regimen:

• I step into a big white tub, turn a knob, and nice, hot water streams onto my head (with nice nozzle pressure I might add). I shampoo, I lather, but mostly I get my nice fifteen minutes (twenty if I'm lucky) of steamed relaxation. It's nice.
• I brush my teeth for two minutes like Dr. Pilot reminds me twice yearly! The sink stays on while I am brushing. 
• Go get breakfast, which includes one big glass of water. Run to the bathroom before I leave, flush the toilet. 

I'm sure this morning ritual is not much different than the one you follow. Here in Seattle, we are super duper lucky to have such a superb water system. We can drink our tap water, the shower doesn't make our hair feel like calcium, and it runs with absolutely no hint of the color brown-- and lemme tell you, this does not ring true in every state. I'm proud of our water, so I consume it. But in one morning, I use a lot. Let's just see how much.

15 min shower: 5 gallons water/min*15= 75 gallons
2 min tooth brushing: 2.5 gallons water/min*2= 5 gallons
Toilet flushing= 5 gallons
Total Morning Water Consumption= 95 gallons

And this is just for the morning. The average American using a whopping 176 gallons of water per day. This, compared to the 20L or 5.28 gallons of water that the average rural Moroccan consumers in a day. A Moroccan's drinking, cooking, cleaning, hygienic washing, and farming water all in the amount that it takes to flush my toilet. More thoughts on this later.