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A Waterwise report reveals that the average Brit consumes 3600 pints a week1. Of water, that is! To produce one pint of beer it takes about 170 litres of water. And to produce one 150 gram burger it takes a staggering 2400 litres.
These figures come from a report released today by Waterwise, entitled ‘Hidden Waters’, which provides detail on embedded water - the amount of water necessary to produce a product. The report aims to raise the awareness of the need to use all types of water wisely.
The average Brit uses about 150 litres of water every day. However, when embedded water is accounted for, our consumption is much more. If you include the amount of water it takes to produce beer, grow food, or manufacture a car, the amount of water that each Brit really consumes is over 3400 litres a day.
‘Our research highlights how critical water is to our lives and how important it is that we learn to use it wisely. We all should start thinking about how much we rely on water which is finite, irreplaceable, and ultimately shared globally’ says Joanne Zygmunt, Head of Research at Waterwise, ‘There must be a collective effort by industry, consumers, Government, regulators and others to save water and to ensure a sustainable water supply for the future.’
‘I welcome this valuable briefing which engages the attention of the ordinary water user as well as legislators and water professionals,’ says Professor Tony Allen, University of London. ‘This report takes a comprehensive view of water which many have been reluctant to adopt. The numbers cited are controversial, but the resulting debate will make an excellent beginning to a very much needed discussion on the future of our water supplies.’
Global agriculture requires more than 200 million litres per second to grow our food. And the majority of the water that we consume every day is hidden in the food we eat.
To produce one 150 gram burger it takes a staggering 2400 litres of water. The embedded water in a burger comes from the water needed to grow about 10,000 kilos of feed for the cow, to supply that cow with drinking water and to clean the cattle farm. And 2400 litres does not even include the amount of water embedded in processing, packaging, or transport.
The report also reveals that the average water footprint of a Brit is well over one million litres per year. When discussing climate change the water footprint is just as important as the carbon footprint. Our current levels of consumption are not sustainable. As the global population continues to increase, as people go on leading ever more water-hungry lifestyles, and as the effects of climate change begin to manifest, it is a real worry where our all this water will come from. Our planet will not be able to cope indefinitely with this strain.
What’s more is that our consumption has effects on water resources all over the world, not just here in the UK. About 70 percent of the UK’s water footprint is external, meaning that along with the products that we import we are also ‘importing’ embedded water. Our consumption here in the UK could well be draining lakes, rivers, and aquifers in other nations.
Notes to Editors
1. Assuming an average consumption of ten pints per week, the safe recommended limit per week for men. Ten pints of beer X 170 litres of embedded water for each pint = 1700 litres or 3600 pints of embedded water.
2. A copy of ‘Hidden Waters’ is downloadable from www.waterwise.org.uk
3. Waterwise is an independent, not for profit, non-governmental organisation focused on decreasing water consumption in the UK by 2010 and building the evidence base for large scale water efficiency. We are the leading authority on water efficiency in the UK. We sit on the UK Environment Minister’s Water Saving Group alongside the water industry and regulators.
4. Our aim is to reverse the upward trend in how much water we all use at home and at work by 2010.
5. We work together with key partners in the water companies, governments (UK, Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland and local governments), manufacturers, retailers, NGOs, environmentalists, regulators, agriculture, business, domestic consumers and the media.
6. Waterwise founded the Waterwise Marque in October 2006 which is the first award scheme of its kind in the UK. We award the Marque annually to water using products which highlight water efficiency or reduce water wastage. We are currently calling for entries until the end of January 2007.
7. For more information please visit www.waterwise.org.uk
8. Waterwise working with nine other NGOs has produced a Blueprint for water showing how water efficiency is a key element of water resource management. This document is intended to shape UK water policy over the next ten years. For more information visit www.blueprintforwater.org.uk
Contacts:
Chris Philpot
Media and Campaigns Manager, Waterwise
020 7957 4615
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1 Queen Anne’s Gate, London, SW1H 9BT
Jacob Tompkins
Director, Waterwise
07793 709567
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1 Queen Anne’s Gate, London, SW1H 9BT
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