Water Thoughts

Cathryn and I live in Arizona, in the Sonoran Desert. just north of the border with Mexico, at an elevation of about 3300 feet. Our most precious resource is water, which will be hard to come by if the grid goes down. We have been working hard to set up a water harvesting system. I have put gutters on the long side of our Spanish tile roof, and plan to put gutters also on the opposite side. We have on order two 625-gallon water storage tanks, for which I am building platforms. I am told that about 10 minutes of one of our monsoon storms will fill this sized tank to the brim.

Here are some interesting facts about water, taken from "When All Hell Breaks Loose" by Cody Lundin.
-Of the 1700 million square miles of water on the earth, all 326 million trillion gallons of it, less than 0.5% is potable.
-98% of the planet's water is ocean.
-2% of earth's water is fresh but locked up in glaciers.
-0.36% of earth's water is found underground.
-0.036% of earth's water is found in lakes and rivers.
-Each day, the sun evaporates 1 trillion tons of water.
-The human brain is 75% water.
-Human blood is 83% water.
-Human bones are 25% water.
-One inch of rain falling on 1 acre of land provides 27,154 gallons of water.
-Groundwater can take a human lifetime to traverse 1 mile.
-Over 90% of the world's fresh water supply is in Antarctica.
-One drip per second from a leaky faucet can waste 2000 gallons of water per year.
-If all plumbing fixtures in the US were replaced with water-conserving fixtures we could save 3 to 8 billion gallons of water per day.
-The average toilet uses 5 to 7 gallons per flush.
-The average bath uses 36 gallons of water; a shower uses 5 gallons per minute.
-An average American residence uses 107,000 gallons of water per year.
-The United States uses about 346,000 billion gallons of freshwater every day in irrigation, industry, fire fighting, and street cleaning.
-Americans use 5 times more water than Europeans.
-2/3 of the water used in an American home is used in the bathroom.
-Less than 1% of the water treated by public water systems is used for drinking and cooking.
-Water expands by about 1/10 of its volume when it freezes.
-Drinking adequate amounts of water can decrease the risk of colon cancer, bladder cancer, and breast cancer.
-Drinking adequate water can significantly reduce joint and back pain.
-Adequate hydration can prevent and alleviate headaches.
-95% of a tomato is water.
-More than 1.1 billion people do not have regular access to clean water.
-1 billion people must walk 3 or more hours to obtain drinking water.
-In Mexico, 15% of the population must haul or carry water.
-Nearly 2% of US homes have no running water.
-More than 2 billion people do not have a safe supply of water.
-At least 400 million people live in regions with severe water shortages.
-There are more than 70,000 known water pollutants.
-Worldwide, water-born diseases cause about 15 million deaths per year.