Comparing yourself to others can inspire you to reduce and save

People often wonder how much water they are using when compared to others—their neighbors, people in other cities or oven those in other countries. One way to find out more about your water use is to pay attention, over time, to your water bill , but this doesn’t provide you any information about how well you are doing compared to others.

Your water use over time is often called your water “footprint.” There are a few water footprint calculators to try online that can give you a good idea generally of where you stand; one good one is the National Geographic Water Footprint Calculator.

This tool factors in the water use in your house, yard as well as water, food and travel (they do a good job of explaining the links) and gives you an idea of how you compare to the average American, who uses about 2,000 gallons a day—twice the global average.

So what to do if you want to reduce your water footprint? Some good advice can be found on Regional Water Providers Consortium webite (https://www.conserveh2o.org/) about saving water inside and out, including a series of instructional videos on how to identify and fix water leaks, low water irrigation and lawn alternatives.

Why save water in rainy Clackamas County, you ask? Our population is growing every year, and even in the rainy months that can put a lot of pressure on our water supply. More people means each of us needs to use a little less so there will be water for all us, now and into the future.