California will now have high-efficiency toilets and urinals. Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has come up with a bill to reduce use of water in toilets. The drought situation in the US state has forced Californians to resort to conservation. The Colorado River Basin, an important source of water supply for Southern California, experienced consecutive years of drought from 2000-2004.
The bill proposes new flush volume standards.By 2014, all toilets installed in buildings will not be allowed to use more than 4.8 l of water per flush, down from the current 6 l limit. Dual flush toilets are expected to reduce water used for urinals from 3.7 l to 1.8 l. The new standards will be implemented in phases from January 2010; all new toilets installed or sold would need to be high-efficiency models by 2014. An average resident uses around 265-303 l of water a day indoors, with toilets accounting for approximately one-third of water use--more than any other indoor source.
The new standards are expected to save 740 million litres of water in the first year alone--enough to fill 300 Olympic-sized swimming pools, and after 10 years of implementation, the state is aiming to save over 30 billion litres of water, one-sixth of the total water use in the state.
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