Twenty liters of water is about what one person can carry. It is also the amount the World Water Council considers the minimum needed for daily human existence, including drinking, washing and cooking. So perhaps it's no coincidence that the largest containers allowed for use exporting water from Michigan are been fixed by law at 20 liters or 5.7 gallons, which is slightly bigger
For Americans, 20 liters is only a bit more than three flushes of the toilet and about 6% of a day's worth of water use. In the Great Lakes basin, where the wastewater gets treated and returned to the lakes, few people have to fret about adequate supplies or worry about their health as a result.
Yet even here, the long-term prospects argue for caution, including what might happen under global warming scenarios. This winter, as if by way of preview, little or no snowpack formed in the upper reaches of the Great Lakes basin, so no significant rebound in water levels will occur this spring. That's one more worrisome sign the Great Lakes need careful tending now.
http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060322/OPINION01/603220323
Posted by Dave at March 22, 2006 09:30 AM