For most of us in the US, showers are such a common luxury, we hardly ever think about them.
Elsewhere around the world, things are a little different.
In the infographic below, from High Tide Technologies, displays shower costs, around the world—from China and Argentina where it’s only 3 cents, to Papua New Guinea where it’s $3.38 (calculating for a 17-gallon, 8.3-minute rinse).
Those prices are based on a 2012 report from the International Water Association, and for residents in Papua New Guinea, that means a shower costs about 70 %, of an average person’s daily income.
In the United States, a shower costs around 16 cents.
In places like Ethiopia, the price of a shower is also paid in time: some residents—usually women—spend hours of their day traveling to get clean water to bring back home.
Around the world, about 780 million people don’t have access to clean water- at all.
It’s a good reminder of the extravagance of sanitary H2O, and might make us think twice about how we use this precious resource.
