BONN, Germany (Landscape News) — On World Water Day, Landscapes News shares some tips about how you can help protect global water supplies.

1. Be aware of your water use at home. While habits like taking shorter showers and turning off the tap while you’re brushing your teeth might seem tiny in the scheme of things, “they make you good role models to the people around you…and it’s a reminder on a daily basis that if I use more water, there’s less available to go somewhere else,” says Daniel Shemie of The Nature Conservancy (TNC).
2. Take account of your personal “water footprint.” the amount of water you use in daily life, including that which is used to produce the food you eat, the energy you use and the things you own, like clothing, cars and furniture. There are calculators available here. See if there are ways you can reduce your footprint. The Water Footprint Network has lots of ideas about how to do so. For example, producing beef takes four times the amount of water as producing chicken meat, so reducing your beef intake could make a big difference.
3. Find out where your water comes from. “It’s not the tap,” says Shemie, “it’s a river or lake, and that river or lake has a name, and it’s usually a place of cultural significance. Knowing where your water comes from makes you care about that place so that when development or other things are happening in that place, you’ll be a strong constituency for keeping it pristine.” TNC has developed a tool to help people explore their water source and share what they find out.

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