wp4.3.3 water distribution and users’ behavior – analysis

Project no. 4CE439P3

URBAN_WFTP

Introduction of Water Footprint (WFTP) Approach in Urban Area

to Monitor, Evaluate and Improve the Water Use

WP4.3.3

Water distribution and users’ behavior – Analysis Report

Wrocław

Lead contractor for deliverable WP 4.3.3:

Prepared by: University of Environmental and Life Sciences (PP9) and Municipal Water and

Sewage Company in Wroclaw (PP10)

Start date of project: 1 November 2012 Duration: 25 months

Submission date: July 2014

URBAN_WFTP deliverable 4.3.3

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CONTENT

1. Introduction ......................................................................................................................... 3

2. Target groups ...................................................................................................................... 3

3. Current situation on the water supply system ..................................................................... 7

4. Results of the questionnaires ............................................................................................ 10

4.1 Group of “young residents” ...................................................................................... 10

4.2 Group of “professionals” .......................................................................................... 15

5. Conclusions ....................................................................................................................... 18

6. Future needs ...................................................................................................................... 18

References ................................................................................................................................ 19

Appendix 1 ............................................................................................................................... 20

Appendix 2 ............................................................................................................................... 21


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1. Introduction

This report is based on data obtained through the two questionnaires. The first survey on

group of students called in the report group of “young residents”, was carried out between 25th

of February and 16th of March 2014 at Wroclaw University of Environmental and Life

Sciences (PP9). The questionnaire consisted of three separate parts. The first part was about

students’ preferences for water management at home e.g. how often the respondents brush

teeth, flush toilet, take shower or bath, wash dishes and how, do laundry and where etc. In the

second part students had to register the volume of water they used for activities mentioned

above by means of water meter. The third part included extra questions concerning some

particular behaviors e.g. controlling water losses in case of breakdowns or throwing out waste

to the toilet. In this part respondents also answered how many people live in their household

and how much water they consume during a month (see Appendix 1).

Second survey was carried out in June 2014 by the Municipal Water and Sewage

Company in Wroclaw (PP10) (see Appendix 2). It was distributed mostly among the company

workers and some of the workers have also published it on their Facebook profiles to make it

available to their friends.

The overall aim of the research was first to asses water consumption in the household related

to different activities and users’ behaviors in order to verify what requires improvement in the

urban water distribution system. The second part of the survey aimed to obtain information on

the sewage discharge to the municipal sewer system. The survey is also showing, what is the

awareness of the residents about the impact of their behaviors on the functioning of the

sewerage network.

2. Target groups

In the first survey 73 people were involved where women and man accounted for 63% and

37% respectively. Group of „young residents” (Fig. 1) were at the age of 20 – 28, lived in

Wrocław and their household consisted of 2 to 6 persons (Fig. 2).


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20-21 years

33%

22-23 years

49%

24-25 years

17%

26-28 years

1%

Fig. 1. Percentage of the respondents by age

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

45

50

2 persons 3 persons 4 persons 5 persons 6persons

13

20

49

15

3

Sh

are

of

ho

use

ho

ld, %

Fig. 2. Percentage of the respondents living in a household

In the second survey participated 166 people from which 84% lived in the city (Fig. 3).

The respondents were at the age of 18 - 65 (Fig. 4) and females constituted 54%. When

relating the percentage partition of survey participants at different age to the internet users, the

values correspond. The dominating group of internet users are people at the age of 18-34,

which amount to 50% and spent around 15 hours a week online, at average, while other age

groups spent 8 hours on internet a week, based on CBOS survey (2013). In the Water and

Sewage Management survey carried out this group made 63%. The difference is associated

with the fact that the survey was made available mostly to the Water and Sewage Company


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workers, so the age of the participants reflects rather the age of the office workers, who

decided to participate in the survey.

16%

84%

People from the suburbs People from

Wrocław

Fig. 3. Percentage of the respondents by place of living

28%

17%

16%

1% 2%

35%1% 25-34 years

No answer

55-64 years

45-54 years

35-44 years

18-24 years

>65 years

Fig. 4. Percentage of the respondents by age

More than 80% of respondents were working in the sector related to water and wastewater

management or environmental protection (Fig. 5). They are called in this report as group of

“professionals”. About 70% of professionals lived in a house or semi-detached house (Fig. 6)

and their household usually consisted of 2 to 4 people (Fig. 7).


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3%

83%

14%No

Yes

No answ er

Fig. 5. Percentage of the respondents working in the sector related to water and wastewater

management or environmental protection

66%

34%

People living in a bolck of f lat or tenement house

People living in a house or semi-detached house

Fig. 6. Percentage of the respondents by type of housing

Fig. 7. Percentage of the respondents living in different size of household


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3. Current situation on the water supply system

Water Supply System in Wroclaw is quite extensive (Fig. 8). It has the length of 1 519 km

(without house connection) and is characterized by a great diversity of age and material. The

oldest pipelines, built before 1900, are operated in the center of the city (approximately 7% of

the total length). The largest share in the system are pipes from 1900 and 1945. The length of

the water supply network is increasing every year because Municipal Water and Sewage

Company in Wroclaw (MPWiK) responds rapidly to the growing needs of the city by building

new networks in areas of newly formed residential and office buildings, and industrial plants.

Currently almost whole Wroclaw population uses water system. New water pipelines are built

in parallel with the modernization of the existing ones. The pipes are made of various

materials including cast iron, ductile iron, steel, PVC and HDPE, and in some areas pipes are

made of asbestos-cement. 73% of pipes are made of cast iron and 20% of PVC and HDPE.

Pipe diameters range from DN 80 to DN 1400 mm and water pressure maintained throughout

the network does not fall below 0.2 MPa.

The city has three water treatment plants Mokry Dwór, Na Grobli and Leśnica, in which

surface water, infiltration water and groundwater are treated, respectively (Fig. 9). MPWiK

has permission to take surface water in Czechnica intake, from Oława river in maximum

amount of 208 000 m3/d and from the open ditches Oława river in maximum amount of

7 500 m3/d. The company collects also water from the infiltration system of Oława river with

a total maximum amount of 132 000 m3/d.


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[m3/year/ha]

Fig. 8. Water consumption in Wrocław

Fig. 9. Water intakes in Wroclaw (www.mpwik.wroclaw.pl)


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Most of water is purified in two water treatment plants – „Na Grobli” and „Mokry

Dwór” – with a total efficiency of 123 000 m3/d. Various water treatment technologies are

implemented in Wrocław (eg. Aeration, coagulation, sedimentation, filtration, sorption,

pH adjustment) which require using variety of chemical reagents (eg. sodium chlorite,

liquid chlorine, aluminum sulfate, sodium hypochlorite, sodium hydroxide, liquid

oxygen). In addition, the water is disinfected using ozone, chlorine dioxide and chlorine.

Water quality is monitored continuously with the frequency of 130 000 qualitative

analyzes a year.

Figure 10 presents the share of blue, green and grey water footprint determined for the

administrative regions of Wroclaw using Model B. The highest grey WFTP is located in

the center of the city whereas the suburbs are dominated by green WFTP.

Fig. 10. WFTP in administration regions of Wroclaw


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4. Results of the questionnaires

4.1 Group of “young residents”

Between 25th of February and 16th of March 2014 at the Wrocław University of Life

Sciences a survey among „young residents” was carried out. The results showed that the

majority of residents preferred shower to bath (Fig. 11), washing dishes under running water

(Fig. 12), opted to launder in a washing machine (Fig. 13) and do teeth brushing with the tap

turned off (Fig. 14).

Shower

76%

Bath and

shower

18%

Bath

6%

Fig. 11. Percentage of the respondents taking bath and/or shower


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Washing the dishes

under the tap

43%

Washing the dishes

in the sink

6%Washing the dishes

in the dishwasher

6%

Washing the dishes

in the dishwasher,

under the tap and in

the sink

32%

Washing the dishes

under the tap and in

the dishwasher

6%

Washing the dishes

in the sink and in

the dishwasher

1%

Washing the dishes

under the tap, in

the sink and in the

dishwasher

6%

Fig. 12. The way of washing dishes selected by the respondents

Hand wash

1%

Wash in a washing

machine

64%

Hand wash and in

a washing

machine

35%

Fig. 13. The way of washing cloths selected by the respondents


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Brushing teeth

under running

water

4%

Brushing teeth

with turn off the

tap

64%

Brushing teeth

under running

water and with

turn off the tap

32%

Fig. 14. The way of brushing teeth selected by the respondents

Average water consumption per household is presented in the Fig. 15. It can be noticed

that the water consumption did not significantly depend on the number of persons in the

household (Fig. 16).

0

5

10

15

20

25

2 persons 3 persons 4 persons 5 persons 6 persons

7.25

11.70

15.92

18.10

20.50

Ave

rag

e w

ate

r

con

sum

pti

on

/ho

use

ho

ld,

m3

Fig. 15. Average monthly water consumption in the household


13

0

5

10

15

20

25

2 persons 3 persons 4 persons 5 persons 6 persons

3.63 3.90 3.98 3.62 3.42

Ave

rag

e w

ate

r

con

sum

pti

on

/pe

rso

n,

m3

Fig. 16. Average monthly water consumption per person in the household

The structure of water consumption is presented on Fig. 17, which confirms that most

water is consumed for washing dishes and clothes, taking bath/shower and flushing toilets.

More than half of the respondents have double flushing at home (Fig. 18) and almost 80% of

them control leaks in their household (Fig. 19).

Bath

31 %

Brushing teeth

2 %

Dishwashing

28 %

Washing

11 %

Toilet (WC)

20 %

Hands washing

4 %

Cooking

2 %

Cleaning

2 %

Fig. 17. Water consumption of "young residents" group


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0

10

20

30

40

50

60

Bifunctional button in the

toilet cistern

One button in the toilet

cistern

55

45

Th

e s

ha

re o

f re

spo

nd

en

ts,

%

Fig. 18. Type of toilet flush in the household

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

Leakage control Lack of control

79

21

The

shar

e of

res

pond

ents

, %

Fig. 19. Control of leaks in the household installations


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4.2 Group of “professionals”

The majority of respondents from “professionals” group take water from urban water

supply system. Only a small percentage of respondents have their own well and more than

half of them do not monitor the amount of water taken up (Fig. 20). Moreover, 60% of

respondents have 2 to 4 water-saving devices, while only 10% do not have them at all (Fig.

21). The most popular devices are: a double flush, faucet aerator and dishwasher (Fig. 22).

Fig. 20. Percentage of the respondents by the source of water

1%

23%

26%

22%

18%10%Five devices

Nothing One device

Four devices

Three devices

Tw o devices

Fig. 21. Percentage of the respondents by the number of water saving devices


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Fig. 22. Percentage of the respondents by the type of water saving devices

The results of the survey confirm the habit that most people more often take a shower than a

bath. Every day 75% of respondents take a shower (Fig. 23), whereas only 9% take a bath

(Fig. 24). Among people with a car (89% of respondents) more than 70% wash car at a car

wash (Fig. 25).

Fig. 23. Frequency of using shower


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Fig. 24. Frequency of using bath

Fig. 25. Percentage of the respondents depending on the place of washing car


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5. Conclusions

• “Young residents” have still bad habits as washing dishes under running water (43%)

but only 4 % brush their teeth under running water. Most water is used for washing

dishes and clothes taking bath/shower, and flushing toilets. It is worth mentioning that

more than half of the respondents have double flushing at home and almost 80%

monitor leaks in their households. Despite the lack of specialized equipment for water

saving they are interested in environmental protection.

• Group of “professionals” usually take water from urban water supply system. They

have higher environmental awareness as evidenced by having mostly 2 to 4 eco-

devices and washing car in the car wash. Moreover one person has an installation to

reuse rainwater, while 81% do not collect rainwater at all.

• In the two groups most people prefer shower than bath and they are interested in new

water saving technologies.

6. Future needs

It is important to make people aware of water scarcity especially among young people, as they

are about buying their own accommodation, so it is important they take into account

equipping it with water saving technologies and solutions. As most water is used for taking

bath/shower, washing dishes and clothes, and flushing toilets, the current technologies most

important to implement are especially water saving shower heads and faucet aerators, water

and energy saving washing machines and dishwashers, and water saving double flushing in

toilets. The first two are the cheapest and at the same time the most important solutions, as

37% of water is used for taking bath/shower, washing hands and teeth. It is important to make

citizens aware how much water they can save and what is the return on investment for

particular solutions, what will encourage them to buy them.

Another important issue is rainwater usage for household purposes. Only 19% people collect

rainwater, and one person reuses it to for flushing toilet, saving this way blue water. This

shows that recycling rainwater is very unusual among citizens. Most people are not aware that

small investments can help them to save lots of water e.g. for gardening purposes. This needs

to be changed possibly by spreading relevant information and promotion of such solutions

among them. They can be also supported by the special incentives offered by the


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municipality. The Wroclaw Urban Lab will concentrate on convincing the relevant

municipality representatives to promote implementation of water saving and recycling

solutions.

References

CBOS, Public Opinion Research Center, The Survey Report Internet Users 2013, BS/75/2013,

Warsaw 2013


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Appendix 1

Part I of questionnaire

Part II of questionnaire

Part III of questionnaire


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Appendix 2


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wp4.3.3 water distribution and users’ behavior – analysis

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