Water Usage Patterns and Water Saving Devices in Households: A Case of Eastleigh, Nairobi

Water conservation measures are rapidly becoming a necessity in urban environments all over Africa and the world. There is little innovation and available information for homeowners, building professionals and practitioners to guide towards water conservation. Water scarcity has progressively increased over periods of time in Eastleigh due to increased population density from increased high-rise apartments. The study tries to establish how water usage patterns and water conservation devices can potentially reduce water consumption levels. In the study area, 96% of the families are faced with problems related to water supply and hence are forced to come up with water conservation and adaptation strategies due to the scarcity of water. The study used survey and descriptive research design, and collected data on water usage patterns and water conservation devices from a total of 230 households in Biafra and Sewage estates in the Eastleigh neighbourhood. The results indicated that 76% of the households did not have water saving devices while the other 24% had water saving devices such as the dual flush toilets, low flow high-efficiency faucet aerators, low flow plumbing fixtures and automatic shut-off nozzles. A unit increase in water saving devices will lead to a 0.512 decrease in water consumption level. The study recommends that low-income households use water saving devices and develop water management strategies such as water-saving plumbing fixtures, rainwater harvesting, and grey water reuse.

Assessment of Rainwater Harvesting Reticulation Systems to Reduce High Management Costs in Household Buildings

Rainwater harvesting?provides an important alternative source of water in household buildings which?increases water security in urban areas. However, high energy cost consumption by the rainwater harvesting systems results in higher management costs which may derail the investment viability of these systems in households. This prompted this study to establish ways through which the management cost of rainwater harvesting systems can be minimized in household buildings. A survey of 200 households from Greenspan, Komarock, Utawala, Kileleshwa and Runda in Nairobi?County was undertaken as?well?as?data?on?the?type?of?rainwater harvesting?systems, their operation and maintenance cost collected using observation checklists and questionnaires. The findings indicated that rainwater harvesting typologies 1, 2, 4 and 5 had their water pumped from first-level storage to the second-level storage then supplied to usage points by gravity. Whereas, typologies 3 and 6 had their water moved manually and by gravity respectively. On annual operation cost, 100% of households with typology 3 and 6 spent no money whereas, 100%, 75% and 70.6% with typology 4 and 5, 1 and 2 respectively spent Ksh. 1?-?5000. On annual maintenance cost, 100%, 93.7% and 77.8% of households with typology 5 and 6, 3 and 4 respectively spent Ksh. 1?-?5000 while 25% and 22.2% of households with typology 1 and 2 respectively spent Ksh. 5000?-?10,000. Advanced typology 6 with one-level storage point supplies rainwater to all parts of the household by gravity. This eliminates operation costs spent on energy consumption due to pumping of water,?thus minimizing overall management cost spent on rainwater harvesting systems in household buildings.