The so-called domestic uses of water are quite varied. In addition to drinking, men use water for their daily hygiene and household chores of cleaning, washing, cooking or watering. In most cases, it requires a water of a good quality.
Wash your body regularly, including the hands, with a clean water is a fundamental act of hygiene in that it protects against diseases caused by bacteria and microbes, and thus prevent their spread. Although many diseases have disappeared from industrialized countries, hygiene is essential to maintaining a healthy population .

Domestic uses of water are most vital to men. However, domestic consumption of water has remained small, not for the sake of economy, but for reasons of availability. Indeed, water was not easily accessible: you had to get it at the source, the well or fountain, going to the wash to clean clothes, and the public bath to "shower". In French cities, and until the late eighteenth century, it was the water-carrier who brought water to houses. Drinking tap water at home is a recent invention which, even today, is far from bein world widespread.
The access to drinking water has stimulated consumption, and for two centuries it has been constantly increasing. In Paris, for example, consumption is 35 times higher today than at the eighteenth century!