What is water used for?

Around one million cubic metres of water are abstracted in Finland every hour, but only a small share of this volume ends up on our taps at home. What is the rest used for?

The largest amount of water is used for cooling purposes, which account for almost nine out of ten litres. The cooling water used by power plants and factories only stays in these plants for a short while before it is returned to the sea or a lake, as clean as it was when it was first pumped out.

The next largest user of water is industrial processes, or the manufacturing of products. The leading sector in this respect is the forest industry, which uses over 50,000 cubic metres of water per hour. However, this is a small amount compared to the pulp and paper mills of days gone by, which could use up to one hundred times as much water to produce one bale of pulp or roll of paper than today’s factories.

Other industries also strive to save water, and in many plants at least part of the process water can be reused.

In addition to industries, water is used by agriculture and many services. Some of the services and part of small-scale industries get their water from the same distribution network as households. Households account for over one half of tap water consumption, or around 25,000 cubic metres per hour. One fifth of this is used in the kitchen and two fifths for personal hygiene, while flushing the toilet, washing clothes and the like account for the rest.