Seeking to save millions of liters of water per day across the country, the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) - country’s national standardization agency that involves in issuing quality certification - has planned to amend the existing criteria to certify toilet’s flush so that the attached cistern can discharge water for flushing as per needs.
The idea of this move is to promote and adopt new water saving standards in India on the line of global best practices.
“The BIS has a plan for amending the IS 774:2004 to include ‘dual flush only’ (criteria) instead of ‘single and dual flush’ to save water”, said the minister of state for water resources Sanwar Lal Jat in his written reply to a Parliament Question in Lok Sabha on Thursday.
The ‘dual flush cistern’ has the option to discharge full or reduced quantity of water after using the toilets, depending on selection of option. Accordingly, a 10 liters cistern can discharge either 10 liters or five liters and similarly six liters flushing cistern can discharge either six liters or three liters in one go depending on the option selected by the users.
“The low flush toilets use less water and also reduce the volume of waste water”, said Jat while referring to a guideline of the Central Water Commission (CWC). The Commission in its report on “Guidelines for Improving Water Use Efficiency in Irrigation, Domestic and Industrial Sectors” has indicated that water efficient toilets using six liters of water per flush can save 30 liters of water a day per person in the country.
The plan to bring required amendment while certifying flushing cistern is also part of the government’s roadmap to conserve water and minimize wastage under the National Water Mission.
The Mission has identified it as an integral part of the strategies for water saving measures including recycling of water including waste water, improve efficiency of urban water supply system and efficiency labeling of water application and fixtures.
