Direct Water Use: obvious uses of water such as drinking, washing, cooking, rinsing, and bathing

Indirect Water Use: secondary uses of water that are not immediately apparent.

Examples of indirect water use:

• Electricity: generation of electricity uses a lot of water: the water is used to cool machinery; cooling towers keep the water cool by letting a lot of water evaporate out the top of the towers.
• Mining: separation of metals from metal ores requires huge amounts of water. It also uses a lot of water to extract petroleum from the ground.
• Materials: making materials like metals, plastics, paper, and glass uses lots of water; the water is used for cooling machinery, making steam, cleaning, and more. Almost any product you buy  has materials that used water when they were produced.
• Fuel / Transportation: production of gasoline and other fuels consumes significant quantities of water. Therefore, any sort of transportation consumes water – this includes both the movement of people and the shipping of products.
• Agriculture: plants and animals need a lot of water to grow; in parts of the country that don’t get a lot of rainfall, huge amounts of groundwater are drawn out of wells to irrigate crops.