Water Saving Habits

Hello everyone,

This is Tanvi, Daryll, Keith, Benjamin and Jeremy here and we are called the H2O Lovers. In today's post, we will be telling you about the water conservation habits (for households) we plan to implement as part of our project.

After much debate and discussion, we have decided on the following water conservation methods. The reasons for our choices shall be explained further. The water saving habits chosen are as follows:

1) Washing vegetables, fruits and kitchen utensils in a filled sink, instead of under running water.
2) Operating the washing machine on a full load.
3) Using the half-flush cistern in toilets for liquid waste.
4) Keeping the tap in wash basins turned off except when in use. (e.g. Turning the tap off while brushing teeth and/or using a tumbler to rinse mouths)
5) Re-using water (e.g. Leftover water from washing vegetables can be re-used to water plants)

We have chosen these activities based on the Public Utilities Board's (PUB) data on the water consumption patterns of a typical Singaporean household.

Below is the pie-chart on PUB's website showing the percentage breakdown of water use for each activity in a typical household.

                   URL: http://www.pub.gov.sg/conserve/Households/Pages/Watersavinghabits.aspx
                                   
From the pie-chart it is evident that showers and washing in the kitchen sink takes up 29% and 22% of an average family's monthly water consumption respectively. Hence our water conservation efforts should be largely focused on these areas.

Despite showers taking up the largest proportion of water consumption per household, we have chosen not to implement any water saving methods with reference to this activity, owing to difficulties in recording evidence of the implementation of water conservation methods for this activity. Consequently, we have chosen to implement water saving habits in every other household activity as stated in the pie-chart above.

In the table below, each of the water saving habits we plan to implement has been grouped under the categories described in PUB's data.

Water Conservation Method	Category
Washing vegetables, fruits & kitchen utensils in a filled sink instead of under running water	Kitchen Sink
Operating the washing machine on a full load	Laundry
Using the half-flush cistern in toilets for liquid waste	Flush Cistern
Keeping the tap of the wash basin turned off except when in use	Wash Basin
Re-using water	Others

We hope that these efforts will be successful in conserving water as water is a precious resource, especially in a country like Singapore which lacks its own water resources. 

Regards, 

H2O Lovers

Next Post: Collection of water data and how to read the water meter.

See you soon!