In summer, water and electricity top the list of priorities of city residents especially when the resources are scarce. While there are ways to conserve water large-scale through waste water recycling, residents could adopt simple methods in the course of everyday life that could make a difference in water usage.
How to conserve water
Use buckets to bathe instead of having a shower. During a shower, a person will use roughly up to 100 litres
Turn off the tap after you wet your toothbrush as leaving it running for 3-5 minutes would lead to 15 litre of water going to waste
In the flush tank of toilets, place bricks that would reduce water consumption by half
Use water in buckets to clean vessels and sprinkle water before hand for a quick wash
of the 135 litres used by a person per day on average, only 20 percent is used for cooking and drinking
Water level controllers that come with sensors can be fixed in overhead tanks to reduce wastage of water. the devices will indicate the level has been reached in the tank and alert users before water overflows
Outdoors
- 1 Practice rainwater harvesting and maintain the structures. An area of about 2,400 sq.ft. will recieve about 2.60 lakh litres of rain water. Of this, at least 60 per cent can be rechgarged with a proper RWH system.
- 2 Water used for a second rinse in washing machines can be collected and used for gardening or flushing
A drop of water leaking from a tap every second will mean a loss of 20 litres of water in a day. so ensure that taps are closed when not in use.
3 Low-cost water treatment processes like planting canna beds will filter grey water. the water can be either reused or recharged into the ground. The grey water is passed through the canna bed, beneath which are layers of sand and blue metal. The roots of these plants help in decomposition of the suspended solids in the grey water and the sand bed purifies the water. The clear water is then collected in a filter chamber and pumped to seperate overhead tanks to be used for flushing toilets
4 Nearly 40-50 litres of water can be reused through grey water recycling. Those who do not have gardens can dig a two-feet deep soak pit and fill it with pebbles and sand and let the water from the kitchen and washing into the ground.