Contractors are advised to capture rainwater and use taps that turn themselves off.
The authors of the report - Action Plan for reducing water usage on construction sites - hope to help the industry achieve its goal of cutting water consumption by 20% by 2012, against 2008 levels.
The guidance is based on three principal ideas: value for money, the work environment, and habit. By examining the areas where most water is used on construction sites, and taking into account all aspects of activity on site, from personnel to trades, the plan lays out a variety of simple to adopt and cost effective ways to check the use of water. Such methods offer a range of techniques to tackle the use of large volumes of water, for example:
• fitting sensor-activated or auto shut-off taps
• fitting triggers to hoses
• making far greater use of closed-loop water recycling for tasks like hydrodemolition, and
• the early placement of temporary settlement lagoons to capture rainwater.
Chairman of the Strategic Forum water subgroup Jonathan Garrett said: “After the driest spring on record it is only right that the construction industry should play our part in helping to save water.
“However this group has also been rooted very firmly in business reality. The changes outlined in this plan can make a big difference to water usage, with minimal impact on the bottom lines of firms already enduring tough economic times.
“Furthermore, by implementing even just a few of the recommendations included in the action plan contractors can dramatically cut the quantities of water they use on site, particularly when addressing high use activities such as dust suppression and cleaning.”
Jane Thornback, coordinator of the Strategic Forum’s Sustainable Construction task group, commented: “The publication of this water action plan is another sign of how seriously the construction industry takes its environmental responsibilities.
“This plan is the latest in a programme aimed at making construction a more sustainable industry. We firmly believe that by working with industry towards a shared target, we can outline wasteful practices on site, and achieve the often small scale changes that can make a big difference to our collective environmental impact.
“We look forward to helping industry cut its water consumption by a fifth by 2012.”
The water subgroup includes principal contractors and has benefitted from technical input by WRc with support and funding from WRAP as part of their programme to support the construction industry in delivering improvements in resource efficiency (materials use, waste prevention, reduction in carbon and water impacts).
For further details click here for the Strategic Forum’s website
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