Sound water resource management, which emphasizes careful, efficient use of water, is essential in order to achieve these objectives. Efficient water use can have major environmental, public health, and economic benefits by helping to improve water quality, maintain aquatic ecosystems, and protect drinking water resources. As we face increasing risks to ecosystems and their biological integrity, the inextricable link between water quality and water quantity becomes more important. Water efficiency is one way of addressing water quality and quantity goals. The efficient use of water can also prevent pollution by reducing wastewater flows, recycling industrial process water, reclaiming wastewater, and using less energy.
Water conservation consists of any beneficial reduction in water losses, waste, or use .
Conserving water can be beneficial in many ways, but one important reason for conservation is that it can help systems avoid, downsize, or postpone water and wastewater projects. Moreover, when the cost of supplying drinking water and processing wastewater is reduced, financial resources can be used to meet other needs. In connection with infrastructure funding, the value of conservation is appropriately assessed in terms of supply, treatment, and distribution costs that can be avoided because of planned reductions in water demand. In other words, permanent conservation savings that are realized today will have increasing value into the future. Planning is a means of anticipating the future and organizing activities in response.