PRESS RELEASE

COMMUNICATIONS AND MEDIA TEAM OF THE 10TH WORLD WATER FORUM

NO.29/SP/TKM-WORLDWATERFORUM2024/04/2024

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Starting a Water-Saving Lifestyle from House of Worships

About seventy percent of our Earth's surface is water. However, it is a double-edged sword. On the one hand, it can make people grateful for the easy access to live their lives with water. On the other hand, it makes people take water for granted because, so far, access to water is considered easy and almost unlimited. 

Many people must realize that only 2.5 percent of Earth's water is fresh. Of this percentage, most of it is locked in ice at the poles and mountains so that only about one percent of the total water on Earth is available in the form of freshwater that can be easily accessed.

Apart from that, the distribution of water worldwide is also uneven. Some regions experience severe water scarcity, while others may have better access to water sources. This condition can cause inequality in clean water access and trigger conflicts between countries and communities.

For this reason, a water-saving lifestyle needs to be adopted to maintain the sustainability of our water resources and ensure that clean water can be accessed by everyone, wherever they are.

Several places of worship in Indonesia have tried to start a water-saving lifestyle. One of them is the Istiqlal Mosque, the icon of the largest house of worship in Indonesia, even in Southeast Asia.

The Istiqlal Mosque has a unique system to recycle the ablution water used by the congregation by flowing it through a separate pipe from the bathroom drain and collecting it into a special reservoir, where it is then filtered using a machine with three layers of filter.

Currently, the water is only for watering plants and roads because there has yet to be a fatwa regarding the use of this water to be reused for purification. However, this water is clean water, which has been confirmed through laboratory tests, and odorless and tasteless, like the water that flows through the water pipes in residences.

Every hour, the filter machine has a capacity of 4 cubic meters (m³) of water. With a daily usage time of 3-5 hours per day, the Istiqlal Mosque can recycle ablution water up to 12-20 m³ of water, or around 12,000-20,000 liters daily.

This volume has not yet reached the ideal number for a state-class mosque, with an average daily visit of more than 10,000 people. However, the Istiqlal Mosque has initiated concrete efforts to preserve water.

This volume is also an amount that has been optimized through water-saving efforts upstream, namely by using water-saving taps and urinals and implementing a dual flush system in each toilet.

It led to the Istiqlal Mosque receiving the Excellence in Design for Greater Efficiencies (EDGE) certificate achieved in 2022 as a house of worship with an environmentally friendly or green building. It states that the Istiqlal Mosque saves water by 36 percent.

Water preservation efforts should be studied and replicated by other mosques in Indonesia because the technology is quite simple: just separating the ablution water and bathroom waste water, filtering it, and reusing it for watering plants or roads.

Data from the Indonesian Ministry of Religion's Mosque Information System (Simas) as of 1 May 2024 states that there are 299,644 mosques in Indonesia. Try to measure with simple calculations, with 100 people performing ablution and each saving 1 liter of water in hundreds of thousands of mosques daily. All mosques in Indonesia can save 29,964,400 liters of water every day.

Of course, the figures could double, considering the many variables that need to be calculated to determine how much water can be reused. However, what is clear is that this effort is a real contribution to the efforts of the Indonesian people to preserve water.

It is in line with the mission carried out at the 10t^h World Water Forum, which will be held in Bali on 18—25 May 2024, with the theme "Water for Shared Prosperity", which focuses on discussing four things: water conservation, clean water and sanitation, food and energy security, and mitigation of natural disasters.

The Indonesian government, as the host, is determined to fight for innovation in sustainable funding for clean water and sanitation infrastructure in Indonesia and encourage the establishment of a Global Water Fund at the 10th World Water Forum to respond to budget imbalances and accelerate the achievement of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) 6--ensuring access to clean water and sanitation for all.

Water-saving practices are small but significant steps that we can take every day to maintain the sustainability of water resources and protect the environment. With awareness and wise action in managing water use, we can contribute positively to a more sustainable future for the next generations.

Saving water is a collective commitment to maintain life and the sustainability of the ecosystem on this planet. (Achmad Zaenal/TR/Elvira Inda Sari/EL/PR)

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For further information, please contact:

Director General of Public Information and Communications of the Ministry of Communications and Informatics – Usman Kansong (0816785320)

PCO of the 10^th World Water Forum - Dede Ariwibowo (08111830020)

Get more information at https://infopublik.id/kategori/world-water-forum and https://s.id/worldwaterforumpedia