Saving water. It’s all about turning the taps off when we brush our teeth and taking shorter showers, right? Right. And wrong.

Yes, it’s about making those simple yet important domestic changes that we so love (Shower power is, after all, one of our most popular DoActions), but it’s not just about that, as the infographic below shows.

I was sent it a few weeks ago and found it quite striking, and a little bit depressing. At first I read the contrast between developed and developing nation’s water usage and wondered how us saving water here would really help. Just like when Mum used to chide “think of the children starving in Ethiopia” when I refused to finish my dinner, I couldn’t see how me saving water here would leave more fresh water for Africa. That’s just not how the water cycle works.

But then I looked further down the infographic and was reminded just how much water goes into making the products we use and clothes we wear (or don’t wear, as the case so often is). These are usually made in developing countries, and so use up much of their precious water supply.

It’s another great example of how living sustainably (and doing our DoActions) is about so much more than saving carbon. Shower power and Tap it might be the most obviously water-saving DoActions, but Start sharing, Veg out, Passion fashion, and All made up are up there too, in their indirect water-saving way.  And that makes them pretty darn important.

So why not make a pledge to do something and start saving a little H2O?