SINGAPORE: On the street, ask strangers how much water they think a person uses at home each day. The answers range from 2 to 50 liters.
The answer that most people never got: more than 140 liters per person per day. This was something I did at outreach booths as part of my volunteering at LepakInSG, a local environmental group.
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We think we’re using a lot less water because we only think about the water we drink and grossly underestimate the water used for other activities like showering, washing up, and doing the dishes.
Households account for around 45 percent of Singapore’s water use, according to the PUB, which is significant when compared to other metrics such as waste (25 percent) and carbon emissions (6 percent).
Recent PUB figures show that household water consumption rose to 154 liters per person per day in 2020, compared to 141 liters in 2019.
The increase in household water use makes sense, as most stayed home while the circuit breaker was on and spent more time at home afterward.
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PUB has said that average water usage has not returned to pre-COVID-19 levels. This is because water that was previously used at work or school is now used in the home.
READ: Commentary: When Homes Become Jobs in Singapore – Big Changes in the Home and Beyond
GO INTO THE TOILET BOWL
One culprit in how much water is used is the humble toilet bowl. The most inefficient water closets in Singapore use 9 liters of water per flush. The most efficient use 3 liters for a half flush and 4.5 liters for a full flush.
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Many are stunned when they hear about it.
In contrast, the most inefficient urinals use 1.5 liters of water while the most efficient use less than 0.5 liters of water.
This means that half-flushing even the most inefficient urinal uses less water than the most efficient water closet.
(Photo: Pexels)
Assuming most toilet flushes are for liquids rather than solids, a lot of water can be saved if all liquid waste ends up in a urinal rather than a toilet bowl.
But urinals are present in less than half of the toilets in Singapore based on the assumption that all public women’s, handicapped and home toilets do not contain urinals.
Most men’s public toilets offer a choice, and most who step in would choose the urinal. Public women’s toilets unfortunately don’t offer this option and those who enter simply use the toilet bowl.
This means that female public toilet users in Singapore use, on average, 3 to 4 liters more water to pee than male toilet users. It’s not their fault that they use more water to flush, it’s just the way toilets are designed. In most households, there is also no choice for everyone.
This suggests that the toilet bowl is a limiting factor in our nation’s water saving efforts.
READ: Comment: Beyond scarcity and security, does Singapore need a new water narrative?
WHAT ARE ALTERNATIVES?
The average person relieves himself about six to ten times a day. Assuming that people peed half the time they were not at home, that translates to 12 to 20 liters more household water per person per day and overall higher water use for the nationwide flush.
Most homes only have toilet bowls installed. This means that the only alternative to flushing at least 3 liters down the drain is to pee in the shower, share a flush with a roommate, or use a chamber pot, which are unsanitary and extremely unattractive options for most of us .
What could be an alternative to the toilet bowl at home?
An alternative could be unisex urinals in private households so that everyone can reduce water consumption by flushing after peeing.
A urinal for private households would have to be designed taking into account the space constraints in HDB toilets and the challenges of installing them in existing water supply and plumbing installations.
File photo of a toilet.
It would be a lot of work, but a well-designed unisex urinal could help reduce water usage in the home.
But installing a urinal in a cramped toilet wouldn’t be ideal.
Toilets in HDB apartments range from 3 m² to 4 m², with larger HDBs generally having larger toilets. This makes it difficult to have a standardized urinal design for all HDBs, especially those that have already been built. Here, however, we need to think outside the box (or, in this case, the bowl).
One option is to install a urinal over the shower drain.
Cost could be another factor, but would PUB be willing to install urinals in households for free to save water, much like households with non-water efficient faucets?
As we are replacing water closets with more efficient ones in older homes, installing an additional urinal in all homes to save even more water is not an impossible task. New homes could also come pre-installed with urinals to reduce household water consumption.
READ: Comment: Beyond price increases and nature conservation campaigns, save water with smart showers
FEMALE URINALS AND HOW THEY WORK
Of course, not everyone is familiar with a urinal, but it shouldn’t be so daunting and there is always the option to use the familiar toilet bowl.
The acceptance of urinals in household toilets could promote the acceptance of urinals in public women’s toilets in the future.
The use of a urinal for women has been tried in other countries. There, female urinals were developed for standing with a funnel or for sitting like a conventional toilet with a partition wall for privacy.
France and Germany have used temporary female urinals at major public events, while the Hong Kong Toilet Association previously pushed for female urinals in public toilets. However, a lack of privacy and ignorance of female urinals have led to skepticism.
A sign for a public toilet. (File Photo: AFP)
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My friends have shared that some factors to consider are privacy, time periods, general cleanliness of the toilet, and types of clothing. For example, wearing overalls can be problematic.
For these reasons, a large-scale acceptance in the world has not yet been observed. On the plus side, Singapore could be on the cutting edge of home toilet innovation if we find a way to make it happen.
We found a way to deal with water as an existential problem. If more of us stay at home, our water problems will never really go away. Every drop saved is one drop less that we have to extract from NEWater and desalination plants.
To this end, PUB’s efforts are not in vain. Changes have been made over the years, ranging from specifying the maximum flushing capacity of toilet bowls to implementing the system for labeling water efficiency.
These have made the household more water efficient, but more can be done to reduce the amount of water used in the household.
If the humble toilet can be redesigned for all genders and water usage reduced, it could transform the water usage of households in Singapore.
Was COVID-19 the jolt we needed to rethink our hygiene habits? Jaime Ho speaks to Edward D’Silva of the Public Hygiene Council and Jack Sim of the World Toilet Organization about CNA’s Heart of the Matter podcast:
Ho Xiang Tian is a co-founder of the informal environmental group LepakInSG.
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