Americans Struggle To Pay Their Water Bills I

According to the Water Online site[1], millions of Americans struggle to pay their water bills.

The fashion industry currently uses enough water to quench the thirst of 110 million people for an entire year[2].

The fashion industry is the second most water-intensive industry in the world[3], consuming around 79 billion cubic meters of water per year[4].

Around 20% of industrial water pollution globally comes from the treatment and dyeing of textiles[5].

It takes 2,700 liters of water to make the average cotton T-shirt and that’s enough drinking water for one person for 900 days[6].

It is estimated that dyeing of textiles consumes 2.4 trillion gallons of water every year. The ratio of water to textile production is 200 tons to 1 ton in most fabric manufacturing facilities[7].

5.9 trillion liters – The amount of water used each year for fabric dyeing alone. (World Resources Institute)[8].

According to “Water Online”, San Francisco Officially Declares Water Shortage Emergency[9].

 

World Health Organization

WHO

“2.1 BILLION PEOPLE GLOBALLY DO NOT HAVE ACCESS TO CLEAN, SAFE DRINKING WATER. 3.4 MILLION PEOPLE DIE EACH YEAR FROM SCARCE AND CONTAMINATED WATER”[10].

Considering above mentioned facts, we are already facing a serious water crisis !

Can we decrease the amount of water used for dyeing (200 Liters of water used to dye 1 Kg of fabric)?

YES, WE CAN !

The idea is to digitize the dyeing process by applying the color on the fabric face-side. The backside will be free from colorant (No skin contact with hazardous content of the dyes and chemicals). On the one hand, the dye consumption will be around half and the water usage will be around 30% out of the conventional process. On the other hand, the fabric content of the dye to be washed and drained is 50% less than the conventional process, meaning half hazardous chemicals in the effluent.

            The USA is a typical environment to apply this idea. In this case, Americans will not struggle anymore to pay their water bills. Let’s do a simple calculation about a dyeing mill dyeing 10,000 kg of fabrics and compare water consumption between the conventional and the digitized process:

Fabric in Kg	Conventional process water Consumption in Liters	Digitized process Water Consumption in Liters	Difference in Liters SAVING
10,000	2,000,000	600,000	1,400,000
For 100 dyeing mills	200,000,000	6,000,000	140,000,000

 

5.5 billion people are either having no access to clean drinking water or die from scarce and contaminated water, 5.9 trillion liters[11] can be decreased to 1.8 trillion liters and the rest,

(SAVING)

4.1 TRILLION LITERS OF CLEAN WATER

I think it is worth to be discussed thinking of how many lives we can save.

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[1] https://www.wateronline.com/doc/millions-of-americans-struggle-to-pay-their-water-bills-here-s-how-a-national-water-aid-program-could-work-0001?vm_tId=2360891&vm_nId=68743&user=9857bd9c-31f7-487c-9f00-91ee34dacf67&gdpr=0&vm_alias=Millions%20Of%20Americans%20Struggle%20To%20Pay%20Their%20Water%20Bills%20%26amp;%238212;%20Here%26amp;%238217;s%20How%20A%20National%20Water%20Aid%20Program%20Could%20Work&utm_source=mkt_WOL&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=WOL_12-07-2021&utm_term=9857bd9c-31f7-487c-9f00-91ee34dacf67&utm_content=Millions%20Of%20Americans%20Struggle%20To%20Pay%20Their%20Water%20Bills%20%26amp;%238212;%20Here%26amp;%238217;s%20How%20A%20National%20Water%20Aid%20Program%20Could%20Work&mkt_tok=MDc1LU5WQy0wODYAAAGBM5RbcaTzqNo4tUVTbRpsA7qN6vz6mi4fixjlna11X2pogI9Hfctsfnd9gNxpIexnagjs1xG7dVZ1A4EgDPBIUkCZGvpFf1DFACTNipsy5CoFag

[2] Global Fashion Agenda (2017) Pulse of the Fashion Industry Report

[3] Smarter Business. The Top 5 Industries That Consume the Most Water. https://smarterbusiness.co.uk/blogs/the-top-5-industries-that-consume-the-most-water/

[4] Global Fashion Agenda and The Boston Consulting Group (2017). Pulse of the Fashion Industry Report. http://globalfashionagenda.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/Pulse-of-the-Fashion-Industry_2017.pdf

[5] Good On You. Fashion: The Thirsty Industry. https://goodonyou.eco/fashion-and-water-the-thirsty-industry/

[6] National Geographic. How Your T-Shirt Can Make a Difference. https://video.nationalgeographic.com/video/00000144-0a29-d3cb-a96c-7b2dea6c0000

[7] https://indiantextilejournal.com/articles/FAdetails.asp?id=5991

[8] https://www.theconsciouschallenge.org/ecologicalfootprintbibleoverview/water-clothing

[9] https://www.wateronline.com/doc/san-francisco-officially-declares-water-shortage-emergency-0001?vm_tId=2361808&vm_nId=68759&user=9857bd9c-31f7-487c-9f00-91ee34dacf67&gdpr=0&vm_alias=San%20Francisco%20Officially%20Declares%20Water%20Shortage%20Emergency&utm_source=mkt_WOL&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=WOL_12-09-2021&utm_term=9857bd9c-31f7-487c-9f00-91ee34dacf67&utm_content=San%20Francisco%20Officially%20Declares%20Water%20Shortage%20Emergency&mkt_tok=MDc1LU5WQy0wODYAAAGBPeHc7-vRRDGZrXdUggFwcVXX6OLWrYTvjyDv3sCFRlBAdwbXtip31PTPmX1bObLUtN9iRsLMrRztonyXOaeip_0qjOSHt5NZkwBcb4tqbV3BlQ

[10] https://wholives.org/our-mission/mission/

[11] https://www.theconsciouschallenge.org/ecologicalfootprintbibleoverview/water-clothing