Sunday 18 June 2017

Pilots for Change

Article by Mary Constable in Earthworks on Gauge's projects in Zambia. The article reviews the pilot housing projects carried out by Lafarge, Peoples Housing Process, ILO and UNEP in Zambia. The pilots were evaluated using the SBAT tool and useful guidance was developed for future projects. 

Saturday 3 June 2017

How to achieve water use of less than 100l/person/day


The table and graph above show how water use of under 100l/person/day can be achieved in a house or apartment building. This has been generated using the Water Use Modelling (WUM) tool.  This requires the following:

  •  Dual flush efficient toilets
  • Water efficient shower heads and short duration showers
  • Efficient use of water for cooking, washing and laundry
  • Only grey water used for irrigation. 

Water Evaluation and Monitoring



The Water Evaluation and Monitoring (WEM) tool can be used to track water consumption in buildings. Data from water utilities or water meters is input into the tool to generate tables and graphs which can be used to understand water use patterns. This analysis can be used to track water use against benchmarks and identify opportunities for improved performance. The tool and a short online course explaining how it can be used are available here

How do you reduce water consumption to under 100 liters per person per day?



How do you reduce water consumption to under 100 liters per person per day?

One of the best ways of doing this is to model current water use and then test options to reduce water use in the model in order to decide on the best option(s) to implement. This enables non-cost interventions related to behavior (such as shorter showers) to be implemented, before incurring the significant expense and disruption associated with major water system upgrading.

The Water Use Modelling (WUM) tool and course developed by Gauge support rapid modeling of water systems in buildings in order to inform water use reduction strategies.

Water Evaluation and Monitoring


A new online course by Gauge has been developed to provide skills and tools to monitor and evaluate water use in buildings. It includes a simple water use monitoring and evaluation tool in Excel which can be populated with information from water utility bills or from water meter readings to understand water use patterns within a building over a year as well as water use in relation to historic records and targets.

The tool and methodology provided by the course is a very effective way of tracking water use in buildings and supports effective monitoring and evaluation process which can be used to reduce water use in buildings in an effective way. The course is not highly technical and is suitable for anyone wishing to track water use and reduce its use in buildings.