Facts on Water Saving
The Importance of Using Water Saving Technology in Business Buildings
Waterwise Bathrooms
Water is a precious resource; it is only second to oxygen as a substance on earth that is crucial to life. Water scarcity is a major issue in Australia. Establishing practical water management plans for commercial buildings is now a priority for developers, architects, builders, plumbers and the government.
Commercial buildings under construction are now required to have waterwise technology specified in the building plans. In established buildings when retro-fits are being planned to bathroom and kitchen amenities waterwise technology is being stipulated.
Recommendations such as:
- Using WELS rated taps and shower fixtures
- Timer flow taps
- Waterless Urinals
- Dual flushing toilets
- Flow controllers
Water use in Commercial Buildings
Commercial office building sector is a significant water end user. For example, office water use can account for 10% of capital city water consumption.
Audits of office buildings in Australia and overseas indicate that over 95% of water use in office buildings is accounted for by amenities, cooling towers and leakage.
The breakdown is as follows:
- Leakage 26% (taps, urinals, cisterns, piping, valves, pumps)
- Amenities 37% (toilets, kitchenettes, showers)
- Cooling towers 31% (air-conditioning, cooling towers)
- Other 2% (cleaning, car wash)
- Retail 3% (primarily food outlets)
- Irrigation 1% (landscaping, irrigation)
Water and Personal Usage
Permanent winter sprinkler bans apply to all scheme and bore water users in Perth, Mandurah and some parts of the South West, from 11 June to 31 August each year.
Two thirds of the water used in a home is used in the bathroom.
Australian’s use two times more water than American’s and five times more water than European’s.
Water and Contamination
The principal sources of contamination are associated with the post World War II chemical age.
If all new sources of contamination could be eliminated, in 10 years, 98% of all available groundwater would then be free of pollution.
Water and Planet Earth
Less than 1% of the water supply on earth can be used as drinking water.
Water dissolves more substances than any other liquid. Wherever it travels, water carries chemicals, minerals, and nutrients with it.
Somewhere between 70%-75% of the earth’s surface is covered with water.
The earth is a closed system, similar to a terrarium, meaning that it rarely loses or gains extra matter. The same water that existed on the earth millions of years ago is still present today.
Of all the water on the earth, humans can use only about three tenths of a percent of this water.
Such usable water is found in groundwater aquifers, rivers, and freshwater lakes.
Water moves around the earth in a water cycle. The water cycle has five parts: evaporation, condensation, precipitation, infiltration and surface run-off.
In a 100-year period, a water molecule spends 98 years in the ocean, 20 months as ice, about 2 weeks in lakes and rivers, and less than a week in the atmosphere.
Water and Health
Roughly 70% of an adult’s body is made up of water.
By the time a person feels thirsty they have lost over 1% of their total water amount.
Today, drinking water meets over a hundred different standards for drinking water quality.
In most cities and towns, drinking water from the tap is treated so that people don’t get sick with diseases such as cholera and typhoid, which are caused by bacteria, viruses or parasites found naturally in the water.
When water contains a lot of calcium and magnesium, it is called hard water. Hard water is not suited for all purposes water is normally used for.
More than 2 billion people on earth do not have a safe supply of water.
