So that our drinking water doesn't just go down the toilet.

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The Agua de Sol water quiz - Question 2: Background information on the use of our tap water in Europe - and what we always knew we could do better.

What does that mean for all of us? We should do what responsible people do: use our water carefully, save where anything else would be a waste; also save where it doesn't hurt. - And otherwise: optimize things, improve them, rethink them - like "startups with impact" like Agua de Sol.

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In our quiz we asked what we mainly use our tap water for. First and foremost, for bathing or showering, followed by washing clothes and washing dishes. A lot of it goes down the toilet - up till then we have already used 3/4 of the carefully treated drinking water without having taken a single sip.

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To better classify this, let's look at all the "water consumers" in Europe:

The agricultural sector uses the most water: a good 40%. Although only just under 10% of all agricultural land in Europe is irrigated, around 50% of all water is used on this land - and the trend is rising. A lot of water is also used to generate energy, mainly for cooling power plants and generating electricity from hydropower: around 28%. Mining and manufacturing account for a further 18%, followed by households.

“And all households together consume a good 12%. On average, 144 liters of water per person per day are supplied to European households.”

Our opportunities to encourage industry, agriculture, etc. to save water are not particularly great, which is not to say that we should not get involved in these areas and exert our influence. But what we can and should definitely change is our own water consumption - in our homes, in the garden. And there are two starting points: Technology and behavior.

First we go to the bathroom - that's where the most water is used.

Basically, from now on we turn off the water: when brushing our teeth and while we soap ourselves - to wash our hands, when we shower: turn off the water. Otherwise, around 12 liters of water per minute flow from the shower or faucet directly into the drain - ofcourse not with showers from Orbital Systems - there the water will be recycled directly.

Then we take a look in the kitchen and basement – keyword: technology

Water-saving fittings, modern dishwashers and washing machines. The developers of these devices manage to square the circle: less water, less detergent, less energy - but the devices take a longer.

I don't think that's a disadvantage: then the machine runs overnight and avoids peak consumption times, which doesn't help save water, but it saves money. And money has always been a big motivation for us.*

Today, Bosch Siemens dishwashers are water saver par excellence and enjoys great popularity in the spotlight of test reports (so much recognition must be given to the achievement of the BSH developers).

And also the sink is no longer a place of waste either: put the plug in, turn on the water, wash the vegetables. Drain the water, rinse the vegetables briefly with fresh water - done.

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Plastic bottles... and no end **

Finally, a few more sentences about drinking water from plastic bottles: Everyone knows that water from plastic bottles pollutes the environment, costs a lot of water to produce - and is really expensive. So not a word about that.

Main argument of the plastic bottled water drinker: "You can't trust the water from the tap." - And? But you can trust the water from the bottle? What do you do if you can't trust the tap water? You spend your whole life buying plastic water that you can't trust either??

YOU HAVE A WATER ANALYSIS DONE. Good laboratories analyze our tap water according to all the rules of the art and in the same way that plastic bottles are never tested: for everything that is harmful and unhealthy. THEN YOU KNOW - and don't have to trust it anymore.

If your water is contaminated and would make you sick, you'll be on the evening news and the hero of the neighborhood. If everything is OK, you'll save a lot of money, do something good for the environment, and be surprised by your neighbors who keep lugging plastic bottles around. But you’ll convince them.

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Conclusion: Save water without regrets and without any loss of comfort and well-being – on the contrary: we all feel better when we do something good for ourselves, our beloved, for our environment, for our wallet – and make something new a habit.

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* The discussion about whether it is better to run a half-full dishwasher or wash “the few plates” by hand has actually been decided. A Greenpeace employee recently wanted to know: “People from different countries washed the same amount of dishes – and a dishwasher also did this work. The result: The people used between 30 and 100 liters of water. And the machines? They only needed 15 liters.

** Do we drink the water from the tap, or do we prefer to drink water from a plastic bottle? We will only briefly address this special topic here. Due to the size of this problem, we will publish separate articles on this.