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People in urban areas tend to consume more water as compared to rural areas in India and excess usage of water is soon becoming a challenge to manage with consumption per capita per day already averaging to 150 liters in urban areas, whereas water availability in some of the rural areas is less than 20 liters per day. A study done by the World Resources Institute shows that 54% of India is already reeling under high to extremely high water stress.
Here are some quick, easy and doable things to reduce your water footprint and energy bills and save one of the most important and precious resource available on earth – WATER!
Fix Drips and Leaks – Leaking Faucets/ Hoses/ Shower Heads can drain significant amount of water.Leak of one drop per second can roughly waste 10,000 liters of water annually. Regular maintenance and changing of washers/ connecting pipes shall be done to prevent any leakage of water. It would not cost much and would keep your conscience clear.
Use Low-Flow Faucet Aerators – Usage of low-flow aerators can reduce your running water consumption by more than 50%. Neoperl® Pressure Compensating Aerators shall be installed to drastically reduce your water consumption in wash basin faucets and sink faucets.
Put a stop to every drop – Do not brush teeth, wash hands and face, and shave with running taps.
a. Washing Hands and Face - Adopt cycle of wetting-lathering-rinsing, close the tap after each operation.
b.Brushing Teeth – Open tap only when you want to wet your toothbrush, rinse your mouth and brush. Brush your teeth with taps closed and open it again when you are ready to wash your mouth or brush.
c. Shave using a mug of water rather than opening your tap to wash your shaving razor everytime. You can shave with 1/2 to 1 liter of water against 5 liters of water in this way.
Install Low-Flow Pressure Compensating Regulators in your Shower Heads and Health Faucets – Usage of Pressure Compensating Regulators can reduce your water consumption by more than 50%. Install 4 LPM or 6 LPM flow pressure compensating regulators for health faucet and 9 LPM pressure compensating washers for shower heads. This also helps in maintaining constant pressure and chances of connecting pipe bursting is minimized.
Waterless Urinals – Retrofitting your existing urinals with waterless technologies can help you save water to the tune of 1.5 Lakh liters per urinal.
Avoid installing Flush Valves – Flush Values can discharge 12-30 liters of water if not used properly. Usage of a cistern which uses 2/4 liters or 3/6 liters of water can save significant amount of water.
If you have exposed flush tank and you cannot change it – use a ziplock cover bag filled with water or leave a bottle of water to reduce your consumption or drop a few stones in the tank and save water with every flush.
Mix some haldi (turmeric powder) in your flush tank and check if there is any yellow colour which appears in your toilet bowl without flushing, this indicates a leak, which shall be fixed. This leak is often not noticed.
Bathtub vs. Shower vs. Bucket Bath – Bathtub can be relaxing, however, it drains roughly 250 liters of water, a rain shower can discharge anything between 25-35 liters per minute. A normal shower head discharges around 15-20 liters of water per minute. With an average showers lasting 4-5 min, you end up draining over 100 liters of water per shower. Save such grandeur for occasional treat.
If you cannot avoid taking showers, a low-flow shower head can reduce your discharge to 9 lpm, taking a short shower lasting not more than 4 min would consume 9 x 4 = 36 liters.
Take bucket bath as far as possible, you end up consuming not more than 25-30 liters of water per time.
Refuse water discharged from your RO Water Purifier can be used for watering plant, mopping your floor and washing your balcony etc. Do not use it for washing clothes and bathing though.
Don’t flush down things in the toilet. Tissue papers, sanitary napkins, other rubbish collected in toilet. Keep a dustbin in your toilet and throw them in regular garbage and save tremendous amount of water. Moreover, flushing such things in toilets can choke the waste line and can trouble you and others in a long run.
Run your washing machine and dishwasher on full load. Urban people has tendency to wash too much and at times every day, run your washing machine every alternative or every three days depending upon the load, you will realize, it will soon become a habit. Invest in a good laundry bag equivalent to one load of washing machine and keep it closed, so that it does not annoy you till it is full.