Value of sustainable use of water in construction industry

Abstract

Water is abundantly available and precisely vital. However, water is a finite resource and finding freshwater is a global issue for many countries at present and the same problem faced by many others in near future. The construction industry causes significant environmental stress and environment pollution in many ways. Water is one of the resources being polluted and wasted. However, its value and importance are not realized by the stakeholders in construction sector. Basically, construction work cannot be started without water. Yet, water is one of the lesser acknowledged surprisingly by the construction sector, compared to significant effort focused on reducing energy consumption. More importantly, water is also a longer- term consequence dimension for sustainable development. Although, water is an asset for the construction sector, unfortunately, the value of water in construction project is remaining mostly unknown. Therefore, it is worth to devise a framework to provide best practice guideline to promote sustainable use of water in construction. Since the research is at the initial stage, the paper explores the significant gaps identified through literature review and findings of preliminary survey conducted among the industry experts. Literature highlighted, water handling in construction is one of the significant areas required to be looked at and identifying the process and activities that consume more water,the extent of quantity required and also best practices for reducing water consumption during the construction is essential. Moreover, it was found that little attention had been given by previous researchers to identify the importance of water in the construction stage. As found from preliminary survey, lack of understanding of how water is used and how water is wasted are major challenges faced by the industry and suggested to have proper guidelines specific to water conservation for construction work.