Consumption of water in buildings constitutes a sizeable proportion of total water demand, calling for urgent and immediate measures for conservation practices. Increasing population, high rate of urbanization and associated changes in lifestyles all contribute toward rising water demand. There is a need to look for opportunities to conserve water, one of the world’s most precious gifts. Megan C Lehtonen, Senior Vice President of The IAPMO Group, USA, writes on the need to use water efficient products to achieve water savings. Also contributing to the article are Dr. Abdul Matheen and Anjali Singh of IAPMO India.

Water savings can be achieved through out industry by a combination of behavioral change, modifying and/or replacing equipment with tested and certified water saving equipment, to reducing overall water consumption and increasing internal reuse. To assure these strategies, and to optimize water and minimize costs, it is important to assess current water use and set personal benchmarks. Perhaps a stronger component in the fight is to reduce industrial water consumption as a means of major water use reduction. Over the past decade industrial water use accounted for nearly 10% of global freshwater withdrawals. The majority of industrial water use comes from the cooling of power plants. This factsheet provides an overview of how to save and use water more efficiently in industries.

The predicted and imminent water shortages of many countries around the world, including India (as shown in the graph), can be lessened by selecting and installing efficient water consuming products such as taps (including faucets and showerheads) along with water efficient plumbing fixtures such as clothes washers, dishwashers, urinals and water closets (toilets) so that as part of a global effort, many countries have contributed towards helping resolve this issue by following in-country water efficiency guidelines and programs like WELS in Australia and EPA’s Watersense in the USA to help to reduce drastic water shortages to societies.