Practical advice

"marcadors">

Practical advice for the home

Practical advice for industry

Practical advice for agriculture

Practical advice for the home

• Water consumption in the home
• Practical advice for the home: Saving is simple!
• Practical advice for the home: Improving quality is simple!

Water consumption in the home

A block of flats consumes an average of 130 litres per person per day, while a detached home with a garden has a daily consumption of over 200 litres per person per day.

The table below shows the approximate number of litres we consume for hygiene and domestic activities at home.

Activities	Approximate number of litres
Washing hands	2 - 18 litres
Brushing teeth	2 - 12 litres
Filling the bath	200 - 300 litres
Showering	30 - 80 litres
Using the washing machine	60 - 90 litres
Using the dishwasher	18 - 30 litres
Washing the dishes by hand	15 - 30 litres
Emptying the WC cistern	6 - 10 litres
In the kitchen and for drinking	10 litres/day
Cleaning the house	10 litres/day
Washing the car	400 litres
Watering 100 m2 of lawn in the garden	400 litres

Back

Practical advice for the home: Saving is simple!

Here are some simple steps to take to help you quickly reduce your water consumption. Your contribution to saving is important!

The WC

Avoid using the WC as a wastepaper bin, as each flush uses between 6 and 10 litres of water (and up to 15 litres in some models).

Reduce the flush volume of the WC cistern whenever possible. Various devices are available for reducing and saving water, for example the use of lower-capacity cisterns (6 litres), double-flush cisterns (one full flush - 6 litres - and a short flush - 3 litres) or interrupted flow systems: when enough water has been flushed through, the flush is pressed again and the flush stops.

Taps and the washbasin

Turn off taps when not using water. A running tap uses some 10 litres of water per minute.

Repair leaking taps. A dripping tap can waste up to 30 litres a day

Reduce the flow of water in the taps by installing cheap, simple devices that help save water: water saving devices, flow regulators and aerators. These can be screwed onto showers and taps and incorporate a mechanism that mixes air and water, so that with the same pressure and ease of cleaning, up to 50% less water is consumed.

If you are changing taps, choose single lever taps, which consume 6 to 8 litres per minute.

The car

If you have a car, wash it at the car wash or use a bucket and sponge instead of a hosepipe.

This leads to a saving of up to 350 litres per wash.

The dishwasher

Run a fully loaded dishwasher and, whenever possible, use economy programs.

When you are changing dishwasher, buy a low consumption dishwasher as this substantially reduces water consumption.

The washing

Run a fully loaded washing machine and select the appropriate programme for the type of clothes and how dirty they are.

If you are changing washing machine, buy a low consumption model. While an old washing machine can consume up to 220 litres of water per wash, a low consumption model uses only 50 litres, and also uses less energy.

The shower

If you shower you are saving water. While a full bath requires 300 litres, only 50 litres are used in a shower.

Use an aerator on the showerhead, this can help save up to 50% of the water used.

If you are changing the shower tap, use a single lever tap as this way you can save water wasted finding the right temperature.

Watering the plants and the garden

If you water the plants early in the morning or in the evening, you will need less water as there will be less evaporation.

Installing a drip system at the roots of the plants provides localised watering and is also an excellent system for plant growth.

Install a watering timer in the garden. This is attached to the tap and allows you to choose the time (early in the morning or in the evening) and frequency of watering.

And for the more saving-conscious…

Reuse of grey water

Water from the shower, the washing machine or the sink (grey water) can be reused in the WC cistern. This requires a second independent pipe network for the shower and/or washing machine water to a treatment installation and storage tank, from which the water will have to be pumped to the WC using a separate network.

Make use of rainwater

Rainwater can be used for watering the plants if a water collection system is installed on the roof and water is saved in a cistern.

Back

Practical advice for the home: Improving quality is simple!

Another way of making better use of water is to protect the water supply by avoiding polluting it. We can collaborate in this by….

Not dirtying water!

1. Not discharging environmentally toxic products or products that are difficult to eliminate naturally or artificially: cooking oils, cleaning products, chemical substances from laboratories, white spirit, paints, solvents and similar, etc. (just one litre of mineral oil can contaminate 10,000 litres of water). These products make the purification process in wastewater treatment plants more difficult. These liquids should therefore be kept separate and taken to the nearest tip so that they can be dealt with properly.
2. Use a traditional sink plunger (rubber suction pad with a handle) instead of chemical products based on caustic soda, acids and other toxic substances. Household products such as bicarbonate of soda and vinegar can be used for unblocking.
3. Using phosphate-free detergents and using whiteners based on percarbonates, instead of bleach.
4. Using environmentally-friendly paints, varnishes and solvents. But whether you use environmentally-friendly products or not, these must always be kept separate and taken to the tip so that they can be dealt with properly.

Never use the WC or the sink as wastepaper bins!

1. To avoid doing so, waste bins should be installed in toilets. Sinks should be equipped with a strainer that should be periodically emptied.

Back

Practical advice for industry

The improvement and use of water and the rationalization of its use requires the introduction of a savings programme to decrease consumption and guarantee the quality of water discharged. In this sector, the best way to save water is to keep it clean and reusable, applying measures for the prevention and treatment of pollution and the recycling of wastewater, making industries aware that excessive water consumption is incompatible with the concept of sustainable production

Certain devices can be used that prevent loss (automatic valves, individual meters, tanks with springs, flow limiters) and help save between 5 and 10% of water. In industry, a 12 mm-diameter tap that drips means the loss of almost 850,000 litres per month.

The Catalan Energy Institute has studied water savings in Catalonia, based on consumption of 415 companies, and has demonstrated that the application of this programme enables annual savings of the equivalent of the water used in the home by 400,000 people, or the water consumed by a city of 125,000 inhabitants

Back

Practical advice for agriculture

Agriculture consumes 73% of the water used in Catalonia. To save water in this sector irrigation infrastructures and systems should be transformed, existing channelling should be repaired or sheathed to prevent losses and the hydraulic system and its management should be modernized.

Water consumed for agricultural uses can be saved by substituting traditional runoff or flooding watering systems, which consume a great deal of water and make the final product more expensive, with more modern systems that rationalise water consumption and increase the profitability of agriculture, such as:

• Sprinklers, which spread water like raindrops.
• Micro-irrigation, which distributes water at low pressure through holes in tubes which are suspended above or placed on the soil.

Watering systems	Efficiency of pipes	Efficiency of distribution	Efficiency of application	Global efficiency
Gravity	90%	75%-80%	55%-60%	40%-50%
Sprinklers	90%	85%-90%	65%-70%	55%-65%
Localised	90%	85%-90%	80%-85%	70%-80%

Back