The importance of water efficiency in buildings in Mediterranean countries: The Portuguese experience

摘要

The risk of hydric stress will increase significantly across the entire planet, especially in the Mediterranean basin, and some European countries, such as Portugal, may experience very serious problems in a large part of their territory in the short to medium term. In addition, there is a high level of inefficiency in the water supply system in Portugal (in public and building systems), which amounts to approximately 250 million m3 a year, representing 60% of total inefficiencies of water in Portugal, in economic terms. The truth is that the risks of hydric stress and the high level of inefficiency in the networks require the immediate implementation of various measures, including the promotion of the use of efficient products in buildings. With this objective in view, ANQIP (National Association for Quality in Building Installations), a Portuguese non-governmental organisation dedicated to the promotion of quality and efficiency in buildings, decided to launch a voluntary certification and labelling system for product water efficiency in October 2008. This paper describes the system that is being implemented and the categories attributed to each product, and also presents a detailed analysis of a new Portuguese Specification for rainwater harvesting in buildings; it looks at certain technical aspects of the conception and design of installation components and the demands of water quality in light of its various uses.