Is spending 10 minutes in the shower reasonable, using up 125 litres of water? Wouldn’t five minutes be enough? For those who can enjoy this habit without restrictions, the answer is often tied to the cost of their water bill. In regions where supply is expensive, saving 75 litres per day can provide financial relief; in contrast, in areas with abundant water availability, the impact may be almost imperceptible.

However, the growing global water stress and the increasing influence of climate change on water access introduce a new dimension to this reflection. The issue is no longer just economic—it becomes an ethical question when we compare water consumption across different parts of the world. A striking example: every day, citizens in the United States and Europe—home to some of the world’s wealthiest economies—consume more than 53 billion litres of water just for showers. According to the WHO, this amount would be enough to meet the water needs of Nigeria’s entire population for 24 days. This leads us to three key reflections:

The case of the shower is the best example of how lifestyle at home is linked to water consumption, and it reveals the starkest socioeconomic contrasts. Showers account for around 30% of household water use in economically developed countries, where 80% of domestic water consumption takes place in the bathroom.

However, 2.157 billion people worldwide do not have a bathroom or a kitchen with running water at home. In other words, they do not even have the option to use household water because they simply do not have access to it. They cannot take a shower or brush their teeth at home.

In July 2010, the United Nations General Assembly recognized the human right to water and sanitation. It stated that the water needed to meet basic needs should be between 50 and 100 litres per person daily.

In one of our earliest projects in Ethiopia’s most neglected rural districts, water consumption per person was only 5 litres per day—45 litres below the minimum established by the Human Right to Water. By digging wells and tapping into springs, we enabled local farmers to consume over 50 litres daily by ensuring that women in the community could reach water points within a 30-minute walk. As a result, more than 50,000 people achieved the minimum level that the WHO defines as “basic” water access.

One of the clearest indicators of economic power disparities is water consumption. The wealthier a population, the more water it uses—both at the national level and within individual communities.

This leads us to the second reflection: What do we mean by sustainable domestic water use? Unsustainable household water use is hardly an option for those without bathrooms or running water at home. They have learned not to waste a single drop of the water they fetch from wells and public sources; in this regard, they could teach the world valuable lessons.

There is a vast range of water use, from the amount needed for survival to the water that allows us to shower twice a day, run the washing machine and dishwasher daily, water our plants, wash the car, or fill a swimming pool. In the economically developed world, some individuals consume more than 400 litres of water per day.

If we adhere to the definition of sustainability, what are the future water needs of the children and grandchildren of those who barely reach 50 litres per day? And what about those living in these high-consumption cities? What kind of future do schoolchildren from both communities envision when studying SDG 6?

Do those who consume 650 litres of water per day waste it? The answer is complex and brings us back to the ethical question of 10-minute showers. Many people adhere to the mindset expressed by some Europeans in the  Eurobarometer public opinion survey: “There’s nothing I can do.” For most of them, excess water simply returns to the environment and cannot be sent to those who lack it thousands of kilometres away.

However, the majority of respondents recognize the power of awareness when it comes to the excessive use of any resource—especially water, particularly when used carelessly. In daily life, there are countless examples of waste whose numerical equivalents help raise awareness (data from the World Bank, UNICEF, and WHO):

• Washing a car with a hose uses between 200 and 500 litres of water, equivalent to a family’s weekly water consumption in Burkina Faso.
• Many modern toilet cisterns still use between 6 and 9 litres per flush, nearly the entire daily drinking water supply for an inhabitant of Bolivia’s Chaco-Chuquisaqueño
• Leaving the tap running while brushing your teeth can waste up to 12 litres of water per minute. If a person brushes their teeth twice a day with the tap running, they waste more than 8,700 litres of water per year—an amount equivalent to the drinking water a child in Uganda‘s slums consumes in three years.

Water is a limited resource, and our need for it will only continue to grow. Over the past century, global water consumption has increased sixfold and is still rising. An informed and aware society puts more significant pressure on governments to promote international cooperation and on companies to accelerate their ESG policies. It is essential to keep refining the content and communication channels to share knowledge about the water cycle. Shared knowledge will make it easier to adopt effective management models because it will become a collective intellectual asset. Saving water in the shower does make a difference.