Chapter 13 Understanding the Water Consumption Patterns in Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM) for Water Conservation

This project analyses water consumption data in residential college of Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM) by eliciting the main water metre reading from each residential college. The study found that the average water consumption per student in colleges ranged above 200 litres/day, much higher than the World Health Organization’s recommended level of 165 litres/day. The high water consumption could be related to irrational use of water among the students and staff as well as water loss due to leakage. To detect the water loss in a water network, the reading of water metre during minimum night flow (MNF) time was taken between 1 a.m. and 5 a.m. From the study, it could be seen that most of the residential colleges recorded high MNF level (more than 0.97 litres/second), which indicates the presence of leakage within the water network in the college. The findings from this study indicated that the water consumption in UKM can be reduced by minimising the loss of non-revenue water and educating the people to use water moderately. Saving the water resources will help to reduce water utility bill and strengthen UKM against the threat of water crisis.