Pee & Save? Pee 2 Save?

Hey everyone, this is my first post for Change-Up. And you guessed it! It is related to peeing.

As a BES* student that happens to live near Singapore’s first eco-mall (CitySquare Mall), I can partake in eco-friendly activities regularly; like walking instead of taking a bus when going to catch a movie #MARVEL.

The green highlight of this post is the waterless urinals implemented in every male restroom of the mall as flushing is not required (Fig. 1)!

Fig 1: Waterless urinals in City Square Mall
(source: http://merlionwayfarergoesgreen.blogspot.sg/2013/06/city-square-mall-singapores-first-eco.html)

While there is no slogan outside the mall stating ‘Pee Here to Save Water’, this statement is accurate. With additional water conservation methods like recycling condensed water from the air-conditioning systems, the mall saved 10 Olympic swimming pools worth of water in its first year of operation (Marusiak, 2011)!

Check out this video, by Uridan Waterless System (Denmark), showing how a typical waterless urinal works:

The concept of eradicating the flush arose due to impending global water shortage. During the World Toilet Summit and Expo held by the World Toilet Organisation (ridiculous as it sounds, check this out: http://worldtoilet.org/) in Macau 2008, ecologists and designers debated on this idea because flushes are ‘egregious instruments of waste in this time of acutely finite resources’ (Fig. 2) (Duncan, 2008).

Fig 2: World Toilet Summit & Expo (source: https://www.flickr.com/photos/gtzecosan/)

Why then do we see so little of this urinals?

Considering their shameful accidents (matching Justin Bieber), we can be thankful that Jurong East Mall declined this profitable option. Renovating existing malls with waterless urinals is futile if they lack compatible plumbing systems. However, there is no excuse for future infrastructures not to adopt waterless urinals. By 2061, Malaysia will stop selling us water (Long, 2001) 

With our remaining 3 national taps, will Singapore be ready? 

Our water sustainability has always been managed with efficient practices (Tortajada, 2007). I believe that a policy for implementing waterless urinals to new public spaces will go a long way in reducing our future demand for water. PUB needs to promote this alternative to aoivd a future with water shortage.

So why are we waiting?

Literature Cited

Duncan, D. (2008, November 6). Is it time to kill off the flush toilet? (R. Stengel, Ed.) Retrieved from TIME: http://content.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,1857113,00.html

Long, J. (2001, December). Desecuritizing the Water Issue in Singapore-Malaysia relations. Contemporary Southeast Asia, 23(3), 504-532. Retrieved August 19, 2014, from http://www.jstor.org/discover/10.2307/25798564?uid=3738992&uid=2&uid=4&sid=21104539029807

Marusiak, J. (2011, September 17). Green building experts shop for ideas at Singapore's first eco-mall. International Green Building Conference 2011. Retrieved August 19, 2014, from Eco-Business: http://www.eco-business.com/news/green-building-experts-shop-for-ideas-at-singapores-first-eco-mall/

Tortajada, C. (2007, January 22). Water Management in Singapore. International Journal of Water Resources Development, 22(2). Retrieved August 19, 2014, from http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/07900620600691944#.U_LSw_mSzIM