What is Water Conservation?

What is Water Conservation?

A famous quote regarding water conservation is “Conserve water, conserve life” – this implies that water is essential to our wellbeing and our livelihood; this inference is backed up by scientific research and the UN as it defines water as a fundamental human need to survive.

Each person on Earth requires around 30 litres of clean and safe water daily; this is used for cooking, drinking and cleanliness. Clean water is necessary for all as unclean, polluted water is detrimental for one’s health: around 1.8 million people a year die from ailments caused by dirty water (eg. cholera). 

The UN considers universal access to clean water a basic human right, this is also classified as an essential step towards improving living standards for all (worldwide). Therefore water conservation is not only necessary for current life, but it is also a stepping stone towards a better life for all. Sick students from cholera or diarrhoea miss school and this keeps them in the poverty cycle ensuring their lack of development.

OECD defines water conservation as the preservation, control and development of water resources, both surface and groundwater, and the prevention of pollution. Singapore works towards these by building dams for hydroelectricity and collection of rainwater in some schools (eg. UWCSEA) to supply water for plumbing. Singapore has developed NEWater which is a PUB entity working towards recycling used water into reclaimed water; this pushes for sustainability as, by 2060, NEWater is expected to meet up to 55% of Singapore’s future water demand. This prevents unnecessary spending for imported water and has been setting the precedent for water recycling since the 1970s. 

NEWater in Singapore

Although collecting rainwater can cause the breeding of mosquitoes due to stagnation, people are still researching ways to collect water in a healthy manner by instantly converting it to other methods of usage (eg. hose reels). 

Our project is working towards establishing water collection methods which distribute amounts of water to plumbing, hose reels and nutrition almost instantly.

Written by Yash Mahajan