Always in search of wildlife, I have traveled to a lot of the third world. I assure you that the U.S. attitude toward fresh clean potable drinking water goes beyond insane. Water is indeed a precious resource. In much of the world, potable water is only available in bottles.

Here in the U.S. however, we flush our toilets, wash our cars, take long hot showers, hose down sidewalks, etc. all with potable drinking water. This is madness.

All of these could easily be done with gray water with no risk to health. Potable drinking water is for brushing teeth and drinking. All else can easily be done with water that only looks potable, but isn't. And, I've never had any health risk from this while on travel.

We need to reuse our water. Sewage is great after it is processed. But only 10% of our water is used by cities. The rest is primarily agriculture, for the raising of meat to be consumed by humans. If we are serious about this, do not eat beef and pork. Americans eat way too much flesh protein for what is needed. That is why we have such a high rate of related diseases. I am not saying go to an extreme, like a vegetarian(children need meat to grow) but we can safely reduce our flesh consumption by a large amount.

Jojo Z., very good point!! I would modify that though to point out that the most efficient source of plant protein is soy. However, it is actually more efficient, in terms of protein per acre of farm, to have a fish pond on the farm, grow grains and feed them to carp, tilapia, or catfish. All of these will produce more protein per unit of land than soy, which is also a huge consideration. I'm not sure how they compare on total water used for the protein raised. I'm just saying, vegetarian may not be the best environmental solution. You're clearly correct about beef and pork, and probably chicken as well.