Harwich Water Department - Water Facts

Water Trivia

• The only water we will ever have is what we have right now.
  
• Showers use 9 gallons of water per minute. A bath requires 30-50 gallons.
  
• Once groundwater is polluted it may remain that way for several thousand years.
  
• It can take 120 gallons of water to produce one egg.
  
• A hot water faucet that leaks 60 drops per minute can waste 192 gallons of water and 48 kilowatt hours of electricity per month.
  
• Human blood is 83% water. Human bones are 25% water.
  
• Running the tap waiting for water to get hot or cold can waste 5 gallons per minute.
  
• 97% of the water on the earth is saltwater; only 3% is freshwater. Most of the freshwater stored on the earth is frozen in glaciers.
  
• Each day the sun evaporates 1,000,000,000,000 (a trillion) tons of water.
  
• The earth's surface is approximately 80% water. That's about 362,000,000,000,000 (362 trillion) gallons of water.
  
• Watermelon is 93% water.
  
• 'Water' was the first word that Helen Keller learned. 'Water' was the last word spoken by President Ulysses S. Grant.
  
• In some deserts, rain is so uncommon that the natives do not have a word for it.
  
• Over 42,000 gallons of water are needed to grow and prepare the food for a typical Thanksgiving dinner for eight in the United States. This is enough water to fill a 30 by 50 foot swimming pool!
  
• The people in the United States use as much as 700,000,000,000 (700 billion) gallons of water each day.
  
• Heating water is the second largest energy user in the home.
  
• The koala bear and the desert rat do not drink water.
  
• There are about 8,000,000,000,000,000,000.000.000 (8 septillion) water molecules in one glass of water.
  
• In a one hundred year period, a water molecule spends 98 years in the ocean, 20 months as ice, about 2 weeks in lakes and rivers, and less than a week in the atmosphere.

(Adapted from Water Wonders. National Rural Water Association, 1988.)