What is gray water, and can it solve the global water crisis?

Due to a one-two punch of a booming population and severe droughts across the globe, the Earth is in what the United Nations is calling a "water crisis" [source: U.N.]. It's possible to make do with just a few gallons a day, as people do in many parts of the world, but households in the United States use an average of 400 gallons of water per day [source: EPA]. With a growing awareness of this disparity, some Americans are beginning to think about ways to cut down on their water usage. In some states -- especially in the southeastern and western United States -- residents don't have a choice: Many state governments have issued bans on outdoor watering and are asking residents to take steps to cut their water by as much as 20 percent [source: WRAL].Green Living Image Gallery Guo Liliang/ChinaFotoPress/Getty Images The global water crisis affects the water supply all over the world, including China (above). See pictures related to green living. Conserving water is a great place to ...  more

What is gray water and can it solve the global water crisis? Due to a one-two punch of a booming population and severe droughts across the globe, the Earth is in what the United Nations is calling a "water crisis" [source: U.N.]. It's possible to make do with just a few gallons a day, as people do in many parts of the world, but households in the United States use an average of 400 gallons of water per day [source: EPA]. With a growing awareness of this disparity, some Americans are beginning to think about ways to cut down on their water usage. In some s  more

Due to a one-two punch of a booming population and severe droughts across the globe, the Earth is in what the United Nations is calling a "water crisis" [source: U.N.]. It's possible to make do with just a few gallons a day, as people do in many parts of the world, but households in the United States use an average of 400 gallons of water per day [source: EPA]. With a growing awareness of this disparity, some Americans are beginning to think about ways to cut down on their water usage. In some states -- especially in the southeastern and western United St  more