DO you know that the average water requirement just to flush out urine in public toilets inside shopping malls in Metro Manila could reach to as high as almost a billion liters of precious water per year?

Water urinals consume an average 3 liters of water each time a male visitor relieves himself.

Taking the much-needed initiative in water conservation and to curb the ever increasing demand for water in public toilets, SM Prime Holdings, owner of the largest network of shopping malls in the country, has started its own version of effectively minimizing its water usage by as much as 250 million liters of water every year.

Since two years ago, SM has embarked on a water-conservation scheme as part of its corporate citizenship program especially for host communities of its mall branches, particularly in Metro Manila and other urban centers throughout the country.

SM Mall branches nationwide have replaced the traditional urinals in their public toilets with water-free urinal systems. At present, out of its 28 shopping malls nationwide, 24 are already using a total of 2,205 Falcon Water-free urinals. 

Instant success

FALCON Water-free Philippines, a subsidiary of Falcon Water-free Technologies, became an instant partner of SM malls following the initial success of the program. Aside from the huge savings derived from cost of water, SM Mall management for the first time has drastically minimized, if not has eliminated the regular cost of maintenance required by the conventional urinals.

Precious, precious water saved

PUBLISHED data and figures from SM’s latest annual report show that on the average, the combined weekday pedestrian traffic for North Edsa and Megamall branches, two of the largest SM malls in Metro Manila—is about  475,000 persons per day.  Of this figure, about 40 percent or 191,000 are male, of which 70 percent use the urinals, or at least 133,000 males.  Each of them consumes at least 3 liters of water each time they flush the urinals. There are about 200 urinals installed in toilets inside Megamall and 142 within SM North Edsa.

In actual estimates, a total of 401,000 liters of water is consumed through the flushing of urinals inside the men’s toilets using the traditional urinals.

SM North Edsa and SM Megamall save a total of 400 tons of water per day, which is comparable to 72 water trucks. Applying the same principle to all SM Mall branches, the total water savings of SM Malls will reach 1,431 tons per year—equivalent to 260 water trucks per day.

According to Bien Mateo, SM Supermalls assistant vice president, these total savings in water consumption do not take into account the increased weekend traffic of mall visitors.

“We hope to cover all our mall branches in the next few months. This [program] is our way of conserving water that would eventually benefit our host cities and communities nationwide.�? Mateo said.

Falcon Water-free Philippines

SM Malls’ partner, Falcon Water-free Philippines, is a subsidiary of Falcon Water-free Technologies.

It was formed with a single purpose: to become the country’s leader in water-free urinal systems. Since then, acceptance and interest in water-free urinal systems has grown as the country has adopted a greater sense of urgency about finding solutions for a future where fresh-water may be less available and certainly more costly.

Falcon’s concept of water conservation with a water-free urinal as its product is envisioned to dominate the high-traffic, high-volume public toilets not only in shopping malls but likewise in fast-food chains and gas stations, among others.