Audit Your School's Water Consumption

Get your class, environmental club or a group of friends together and follow these 4 steps to learn how water is being used in your school and how it can be reduced.

1. Learn about your school's water system

Ask the school's superintendent to take you on a school tour and explain current water uses, conservation practices and how the water system works.

Take note of:

• the location of the water meter and the connection to the community water system
• the many ways water is used
• the location of drinking fountains, faucets, washrooms, showers, sinks, sprinklers, kitchens, and pools
• whether there is any special equipment such as automatic dishwashers

Asking these questions will help you gather more information:

1. How is the school attempting to conserve water? Have water-saving devices been installed?
2. Are there additional water systems such as an irrigation system for the athletic field or a sprinkler system for fires?
3. How frequently and for how long are the athletic fields, lawns and gardens watered?
4. What water applications use the most water?

2. Plan your water audit

Plan a strategy for auditing your school's water system.

• Make a list of all the places where water is used at school.
• Organise the water use sites into research areas that can be assigned to Action Groups to audit that particular area. (You might divide the school water system by area - first floor, second floor, outside, or you may organise by sites - classrooms, hallways, maintenance areas, offices, food service areas, washrooms, etc.)
• Find out whether you need permission to conduct your audit and from who, as well as whether some areas are closed to students.

You may want to use a chart such as this one to record your Water Audit Plan:

3. Begin to audit

With your Action Group, research your area by compiling a detailed list of all water outlets (water fountains, showers, toilets) and water use sites (washrooms, kitchens, science labs) in you research area.

Decide with your group the best way to conduct your research. How will you monitor the frequency and length of water use of each site - will someone be stationed there for a given period of time? Consider the best time to conduct your audit at each site accounting for how different times in the day affect use.

You should also discuss how to identify waste or water conservation measures at each site taking note of leaks, unneeded water left running and how these habits can be changed.

You may want to use a chart like this one to record your group's plan:

4. Complete Your Audit

Work with your group to develop a method for measuring water consumption at the sites in your area. You will need a pitcher or bucket, a 250 mL measuring cup and a stopwatch.

Here is an easy way to measure the regular water flow for each site:

1. Turn the water onto its normal flow.
2. Hold an empty pitcher under the fixture for 10 seconds
3. Transfer the water from the pitcher to a measuring cup, one cup at a time, counting how many cups it takes.
4. Multiply the number of cups by 6 to give you the number of cups per minute your faucet uses.
5. Convert cups to litres (1 cup = 250mL and 1,000mL = 1L) by multiplying by 4.
6. Record how many litres are used per minute.

Once you have calculated the flow, determine how long the water runs during each use and the number of times each day it is used. By multiplying these numbers you will get the approximate water consumption per day for that site.

Use the same procedure at each site as well as to measure drips and leaks.

You can use a chart like this to measure your findings:

Discuss with your Action Group the results obtained from your audit of sites in your area. Were you surprised by the results? Did you find clear indications of waste, where and how much?

With your results, you can strategize recommendations for improvement in your school so as to reduce water consumption.

A similar procedure can be followed to learn how much water you use at home and how it can be reduced.

Get Outside Your World Contest

Each year, EWB asks students from across Canada to share their vision of a better world.

This year, Engineers Without Borders and Mountain Equipment Coop are proud to present the Get Outside Your World Contest in which students are asked to answer the question "what kind of world do you want to live in and what will it take to get there? in a variety of creative entries.

Learn more »