Designing a domestic water supply system—The engineer's perspective and considerations as a challenge to consumers

摘要

Water is an essential pre-requisite for survival and development. It supports life of all forms including job and wealth creation in water sector, tourism, recreation and fisheries. It is extracted from rivers, lakes, processed and delivered to households. When population increases, the demand, water use and consumption increases and this puts pressure on the water utilities. This can create scarcity as not all areas may be met by the supply. One possible solution to this problem is to expand the capacity of the utility but the most tangible solution is the installation of borehole and an adequate water supply system that can meet minimal installation and operating costs. A water supply system that uses borehole and tank system can become insufficient in water supply when the population increases. This may require redesigning the system so that it can meet the new demand for water. The design developed for grouped residential with a population of 91 people living in 17 flats was found to accommodate an overhead load tank of 5.7 m~3 at 13.5 m level, a submersible pump with a power rating of 1.2 kW and two centrifugal pumps with the same power rating. The increasing capital, fixed, operating costs was a challenge to the consumer as most of them were not able to install such systems in their households. The paper concludes with a summary of recommendations that the consumers could exploit in order to face the challenges of water provision in their households.