(MENAFN- Emirates News Agency (WAM)) Waterwise, part of Abu Dhabi Regulation and Supervision Bureau, has announced the results of its Residential End Use of Water project, REUW. The project is the first of its kind in the country and aimed to collect and analyse residential water end use data in unprecedented details.
The trial ran for approximately 18 months, and involved the recruitment and smart metering of 150 medium sized villas from pre-selected gated communities in Abu Dhabi. The results revealed at the International Water Summit, IWS 2015, noted that a large proportion of water uses in these homes came from tap usage, therefore future initiatives to reduce excessive tap use would be required. The study also indicated that controlling water leakage and managing irrigation practices are two key sources of water savings.
On the occasion, Khadija bin Braik, Head of Waterwise, said, "The residential sector in Abu Dhabi consumes around 50% of the desalinated water produced for the emirate. Understanding when, where and how water is used in a household can provide vital information for the development of effective water management strategies." The project achieved its goals of collecting accurate statistics of residential water use, and determining the split between indoor and outdoor water-use in the Abu Dhabi environment. It also identified and explored the scale of water leaks.
"The project's results and data will help inform decisions and strategies for future water management and conservation programmes in Abu Dhabi," added bin Braik.
Each of the 150 participating villas was fitted with a meter and data logger capable of remotely transferring data. Using the latest technology data was collected every 10 seconds at a resolution of 0.05 litres per pulse, enabling very precise results. This made it possible to disaggregate the water use in the homes into individual water use events, and to categorise the events by end-use. All the data received was then analysed.
The factual results of the study showed that tap use was the largest component of domestic water consumption, amounting to 34.3% of average daily household consumption. The other major categories were shower use (21.1%), toilet use (19.4%) and clothes washing (11%). Homes that reported washing cars at home had a 13% higher tap use, while homes that used dishwashers reduced tap use by 2%.
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