How Much Water Does An Olympic Size Pool Hold

If you're a fan of the Olympics, and swimming in particular, you lot'll be familiar with the size of the pool (fifty m x 25 m). Only have you ever wondered how much water it holds and how long it might have for one person to drink it?

Depending on depth, the pool will hold between one.25 million litres of water (1 thou depth) to 2.5 million litres of water (2 m depth). And if you assume we all drink betwixt ii-4 litres of water each day, that would have over 3,400 years for one person to consume.

In fact, many of us will consume all the water in the smaller size swimming pool in just 1 yr. It's all due to the amount of 'hidden water' we consume in our food.

These numbers may exist hard to believe just here'south a few examples of how easy it is to build upward your water footprint based on iii primary meals a day – fifty-fifty without dessert!

Breakfast – 1,260 litres

Meal — A breakfast of 2 eggs, 2 sausages, beans, 2 slices of toast and butter has a water footprint of 1260.5 litres. Data and image courtesy of Onedrop.org. Click image to visit website.

Lunch – one,145 litres

Dinner – 2,254 litres

In total, these meals contain 4,660 litres of subconscious water. Here's why.

An estimated 70 per cent of all extracted freshwater is used for agriculture alone with xx per cent being used in the production and processing industries (including nutrient processing). Just x per cent is consumed domestically.

In the instance of beef, around iii,091,000 litres of water is needed to produce 200 kilos of boneless beef. This number includes the water drunk straight by the cows over three years, plus the grain and other products it feeds on, and the water used in the processing of the meat.

It's a similar story for the other foods on the plate. And this consumption will only get worse as the population grows and moves to a western-mode diet.

Estimates suggest water extraction volition increase by over l per cent to vi,900 billion mⁱⁱⁱ per year by 2050. This will provide the sixty per cent more than nutrient needed to feed a population of this size.

Something clearly has to modify, which is why chemic engineers are implementing three strategies to manage water in the nutrient industry:

ane. Reducing water use
2. Recycling and reusing waste water
3. Using culling water sources

IChemE has too outlined a series of recommendations for governments, manufacture and conclusion-makers, to bulldoze forward the changes needed to reduce the amount of water used in nutrient:

All governments should set targets for reducing the amount of water used in food production worldwide by 20% by 2020.
Manufacture should improve the monitoring of h2o usage in food product worldwide past using water footprinting.
Governments should ensure that the use of recycled water in nutrient product becomes more widely accustomed through creating, enforcing and promoting rigorous international quality standards.
Manufacturers should be incentivised to use alternative, sustainable sources of water (eastward.g. water in food, rainfall, saltwater).
An investment of £500 billion (Us$800 billion) per yr in the construction of new chapters, infrastructure and appropriate technologies to amend efficiency of water management globally.

Water is a finite resource, and it will become more precious over the next few generations. Yous can observe out more about how chemical engineers are raising awareness and solving the problems in IChemE's offset Greenish Paper'Water Direction in the Food and Beverage Industry'.

IChemE'due south Green Papers are an opportunity for chemical engineers with expertise in the relevant areas to contribute. Merely to do this we all demand to get involved.

The side by side Green Papers will comprehend these areas:

Energy utilisation in the pharmaceutical manufacture
Where does wellbeing fit into the h2o-energy-food nexus?
H2o and sanitation; the office of chemical engineers in delivering a homo right
Nutrient condom and traceability; how chemical engineering contributes

But for these to be a success IChemE needs united states of america to tell them about our work, what we recall is of import and how practice we call up chemical engineering volition modify the earth in the next decade? What are the challenges and barriers, and what realistic recommendations can IChemE make on our behalf?

If y'all've got an opinion on what matters or an example of where chemical engineers have provided a solution, then please talk over your ideas with the policy squad via CEM@icheme.org