BENGALURU: As the city experiences a severe water shortage, the Indian Plumbing Association (IPA) has come up with a solution that could help conserve water. Aerators, which are fixed inside faucets, help conserve between 40-50% of water in households, according to IPA, which will soon distribute 25,000 of these in South Bengaluru.
Previously, the association had taken the step to encourage adoption of aerators in Pune, and the results were encouraging. Installed in many residential complexes, at the airport and educational institutions, these devices helped Pune save up to 25 crore litres of water in three years, the IPA said.
“Aerators can be installed into faucets of washbasin and kitchen sinks. These aerators will not compromise the user experience of washing and will ensure lesser discharge of water with no reduction in pressure. IPA has tested the efficiency of the aerator in IAPMO (International Association of Plumbing and Mechanical Officials) lab at Bengaluru. With 5.25 lakh apartments in the city, using these aerators in wash basin and kitchen taps would save around 378 MLD of water used for domestic purposes,” said Krishna Prasad, Executive Committee Member, Bengaluru Chapter, IPA.
The pilot project will start next month where IPA officials will first record water usage in an apartment, after which they will then install the aerators and continue their measurements to gauge how water consumption reduces. “In normal taps the water flow is 9-10 litres of water per minute but with these aerators it will drastically reduce to 3-4 litres per minute,” said B O Prasanna Kumar, chairman, IPA.
Apart from aerators, IPA is also looking to install water metering systems in apartments. “IPA is in talks with builders across the city to install water metering systems in new apartment complexes, where water is purchased in bulk through municipal supply or brought through water tankers and supplied to individual apartment units. This is proven to bring down water consumption by as much as 30% worldwide,” Kumar said.
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his apart, as part of the IPA’s ‘I Save Water’ Campaign, they are involved in propagating reuse of treated wastewater in construction projects.
Restore lakes on priority: IPA
The IPA has demanded that the state government act faster and restore 210 lakes in the city with utmost priority. The IPA said that according to BWSSB projections, the current supply and demand of water is 600 MLD which might reach upto 1450 MLD in the next 12 years.“The state government plan to bring water from the Sharavathi river to Bengaluru should be reconsidered and instead they should think of better sanitation and an integrated underground drainage system that would sustain the water cycle in the lake,” the association said.