Iceland has considerable freshwater resources, estimated at around 666,667 m3/per person per year. As a comparison, freshwater resources in many African countries are less than 1000 m3/per person per year. In Iceland, water is plentiful, and water use is generally not a problem. In Reykjavik, each inhabitant uses about 155 m3/per year or around 155,000 liters of cold water each year. In the Westman Islands, where drinking water is scarce, each inhabitant uses only about 46 m3/year of cold water. That is around one third of the water use in Reykjavik.

The main problem related to waste of cold water is unnecessary energy usage (mainly energy use in heating up water). Water use can be very variable depending on the different types of products. Let’s look at 3 groups of products where water use is important. When washing a car only the direct use of cold-water matters, but in washing machines and dishwashers less water, means less water that has to be heated with energy.

See Nature‘s guidelines about water use.

Birt:
Nov. 7, 2012
Höfundur:
Náttúran er
Uppruni:
Náttúran.is
Tilvitnun:
Náttúran er „Vatnsnotkun“, Náttúran.is: Nov. 7, 2012 URL: http://www.nature.is/d/2007/06/21/vatnsnotkun/ [Skoðað:Feb. 13, 2025]
Efni má nota eða vitna í samkvæmt almennum venjum sé heimilda getið með slóð eða fullri tilvitnun hér að ofan.
skrifað: June 21, 2007
breytt: June 12, 2014

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