Water conservation programs in public buildings of Recife-PE

Abstract

This article reports the monitoring of drinking water consumption in some public administration buildings in the state of Pernambuco, highlighting good practices that seek to avoid problems related to the conservation of drinking water. The extension project was started in March 2018 by the water resources research and extension group (AquaPOLI) at the University of Pernambuco, in partnership with the city Administration Department, with the main purpose of conserving drinking water in public administration buildings. The project was assisted by trained water managers in each building. In meetings with these managers, the AquaPOLI group discussed problems and their solutions, and encouraged them to use the Water Consumption Monitoring Worksheet (PMCA) as a tool to control drinking water consumption. Nine carefully selected public buildings were analyzed, to which visits were made in order to evaluate their physical characteristics, the performance of the water manager, and the consumption of drinking water. Some difficulties were identified in the monitoring of water consumption by the managers, whose performance improved over time, with the ability to implement the necessary measures when faced with any anomaly in water consumption. The effective use of the PMCA avoided wasting at least 50 m³/month of potable water in a single building. In addition to these activities, educational campaigns were also conducted in order to minimize water consumption in the buildings.