At our apartment complex, ‘Mana Sarovar’ in Doddanekkundi, we have installed water meters for all individual 32 flats and provided monthly maintenance as per individual water usage.  All the meters have been installed on the terrace.

ManaSarovar__Apartment_Water_Meters

Earlier we used to buy 3-4 tankers per day with limited supply of water. Water was available for 1.5 hours in the morning, one hour in the afternoon and 1.5 hours at night for almost a year.  But now we have 24 hour water supply but buy only 2 tankers per day.

I did some analysis of water usage in my apartment complex. One can see similar number of occupants of different flats using different amounts of water.

Analysis & Report by Kannan Venkitachalam.

We found out that only 20-30% flats consumed 40-50% of total water in the apartment complex.

The problem we faced was the way the plumbing was done. In our apartment, each flat has  two inlet pipelines which creates a problem in creating a single meter but we have connected both lines to single meter outlet.

WATER SAVING TIPS

Apart from this I have also implemented simple water saving techniques in my flat, which has reduced my water consumption when compared to other flats in my apartment complex.

RO Water for washing machine

I am using Aqua Guard Reverse Osmosis System for the last 3 years. I have placed the system such way that my washing machine is next to the adjacent wall. I drilled a hole and put the drain pipe from RO to the washing machine (it is not fully automatic, only semi & twin tub type machine). Once the machine wash tub fills I will take clothes for wash. If extra RO runs I will store it in a bucket near the washing Machine. You know this rejected water from RO is much cleaner than direct tap water, only thing it is a little hard. So I am not wasting any water from my RO.

Kitchen Sink

I have replaced the kitchen sink tap to a shower, which will consume less for cleaning utensils. Since we need more area coverage or spread for utensils cleaning, not volume, so a shower dispensing less water works very well.

Kitchen Sink Shower

This can save a lot of water, this cost me roughly Rs.500/- only. No plumber required for this, you can fit yourself if you have a pipe wrench & Teflon tape. I did it myself. It is not a standard readymade one available in market; need to buy separately all plumbing fittings and the shower.

Toilet flush

There is some adjustment in the toilet flush tank also which controls the volume of water filling. The lever connects the ball valve has got a screw which sets the valve closing pressure. So if you tighten it little more with a small screw driver, you can make the flush tank to fill only the half of it.

Washbasin

Under the washbasin, there is a control valve, I have kept that valve half closed so the water flow from the tap reduces. That is more than sufficient to clean your hand and face.

Cleaning water

The water used for cleaning vegetables, I store it and use it for watering the plants.

I keep the biggest bowl or utensils at the base or bottom of kitchen sink and start collecting the other small utensils washed water in that. This can be used for initial cleaning of other unclean utensils. If you look at any tea shop, they will have a bowl of water and dip the used tea cup first into it and then wash it on fresh water.

Bath

For bath I use a 16 litre bucket. That is more than sufficient for an adult to bathe.

⊕

References

Some of the articles that helped me plan for our apartment:

• Individual meters in apartments – Addressing equity and economic issues of water http://www.indiawaterportal.org/topic/10071 
• http://www.indiawaterportal.org/ask/10077
• http://chennai.metblogs.com/2006/05/24/water-scarcity-and-water-meters
• http://www.bwssb.org/water_conservation.html