Every precious drop counts

Every precious drop counts

The Sun, 27 April 2010

BY saving water, Malaysia can save billions of ringgit and protect Mother Nature. One way to do this is by using water-efficient toilets.

Recently, I replaced two conventional toilets with water-efficient dual flush toilets in my home at a cost of less than RM600 each. These toilets use 6 litres of water for a full flush and 3 litres for a half flush.

The toilets offered two pleasant surprises. For the smaller flush, when the button is released the flow of water stops so that the flushing takes up only one or two litres of water. A full half-flush is enough to remove solids. This means only 3 litres of water is used compared to 9 litres for conventional toilets – saving 6 litres a flush.

On average each person flushes the toilet seven to eight times a day, and this results in the use of about 70 litres of water per person per day (LPD) in a home with conventional toilets.

A home with water-efficient toilets need only use 20 LPD or less. This means a savings of 50 LPD or more. Nationwide, this would amount to a savings of 1,400 million litres per day. And this does not even take into account savings from using such toilets in public and commercial establishments.

Taking into account non-revenue losses of 30%, the massive Pahang-Selangor Raw Water Transfer Project, undertaken at great financial cost (about RM9 billion), at great cost to the environment and great disruption to the lives of orang asli, will only deliver about 1,300 million litres per day on tap.

Many countries make the installation of water-efficient toilets mandatory. In some countries, the minimum standard is 4.5 litres for a full flush and 2.5 litres for a half flush. Whereas here, when I was shopping for a water-efficient toilet, the sales assistant in a big store discouraged me, saying that it may not perform well.

By introducing water-efficient toilets and implementing other water demand management measures, the authorities can make multi-billion ringgit water projects unnecessary.

To persuade the authorities to practise better water governance and to help raise interest in water conservation, a Facebook group called Water Initiative Network has been formed.

JC Tansen
Petaling Jaya