It's amazing how much water we use

Where I live, the town draws water from the river, treats it then sends it to the residences and businesses. The waste water is piped to the sewage treatment plant, the solids settled out, the water aerated and treated and then it is returned to the river for the next town downstream. The big loss in water comes from irrigation, where much of the water is evaporated away to eventually consolidate into rain elsewhere. And some of the remaining irrigation water that isn't consumed by the plants eventually leaches back into the rivers or settles into the aquifers. Implying that water not directly consumed (And even that is returned via good ole #1) is lost or wasted is very much simplifying what really happens.