Water conservation meets tradition

Abu Dhabi - As mosques across the UAE experience maximum water consumption during the heavily-attended Ramadan prayers, a novel device from a faculty and student of Masdar Institute is being eyed with the promise of water-and cost-savings.
Dr Ahmed Al Jaberi, Assistant Professor of Mechanical and Materials Engineering at Masdar Institute, is working with PhD student Mohammed Al Musharrekh to develop a water-saving device for mosques that promises to save up to 95 per cent of water during the pre-prayer ablution process known as wudu. They are currently in the final preparation stages of getting their wudu device installed at a number of mosques in the capital to test and demonstrate its ability to save precious water.
"With Ramadan greatly increasing attendance in mosques, the time is ripe for a new, affordable and easy-to-use device that can save water during wudu," Dr Al Jaberi explained.
The sustainable and ornately-designed wudu device can help reduce water-wastage by informing users of how much water they have used while performing wudu. The device displays levels for water usage and can easily be attached to mosques' water faucets without any changes to existing infrastructure.
How the device works
After the device is filled with water, the user will tip the device down to wash. The device automatically goes back to the upright position once it is released, limiting waste and restricting the user's total water consumption to the amount held by the device, which is 1.2 litres. There is a line on the device at 600 millilitres, to encourage users to use this amount of water, as this was the amount used by the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) and thus is a guideline for how much water should be used for making wudu.
"My traditional, easy-to-implement and easy-to-use device offers a solution to the national need to conserve water," Dr Al Jaberi said.
Wudu is the ceremonial washing of hands, face, arms, neck and feet before Islamic prayer. Though it traditionally is meant to use only half a litre of water, fast-flowing taps coupled with bad habits, such as letting the water run while rolling up sleeves or removing socks, often result in far higher consumption. The result is instead of using 600 milliliters of water to complete prayer, it has been estimated that the average Muslim uses roughly 24 litres of water. Over the course of the day (which includes five prayers), that can amount to 120 litres. Such unnecessary water for wudu is even more problematic in a country like the UAE, which is both predominantly Muslim and 'highly water scarce,' relying on treated seawater and limited groundwater for its freshwater needs.
In response to the UAE's need to preserve water while honouring Islamic values, DrAl Jaberi's device, which he has developed with the support of his student Al Musharrekh, will enable users to easily use the prescribed 600 milliliters of water for wudu while minimising waste.
Al Musharrekh said, "We plan to test the first model of our device this Ramadan by fixing it onto some of the faucets in one of Abu Dhabi's mosques. We will fix flow metres onto all the pipes in order to measure the water consumption for the pipes that use the wudu device and for the pipes that don't. Then we will determine the real savings from the device."
UAE officials have been keen on reducing water consumption in mosques for years, taking concerted efforts to equip mosques with water-saving technologies. They believe such efforts could help lower the UAE's high per capita water consumption - which is currently pegged at about 500 liters per person per day. - reporters@khaleejtimes.com