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1 QUANTITY OF WATER

When an engineer is given the duty to design a water supply scheme for a particular section of
the community, it becomes imperative for him to first evaluate the amount of water demanded
by the community. In fact the first study is to consider the demand and then to find out
sources to fulfill this demand. Usually a compromise is sought between the two.
We need demand data for two basic reasons:
1. To manage existing systems,
2. To plan new works to meet future demand.
Factors affecting water demand
1. Size of the city
2. Climate conditions
3. Living standard of people
4. Industrial and commercial activities
5. Pressure in the distribution system
6. System of supply
7. Cost of water
8. Policy of metering and method of charging
.1. Water Demands
While planning a water supply scheme, it is necessary to find out not only the total
yearly water demand but also to assess the required average rates of flow and the
variation in these rates. The following quantities are therefore generally assessed and
recorded.
i. Total annual volume (V)
ii. Annual average rates in liters per day (V/365)
iii. Annual average demand per person (per capita demand)
iv. Fluctuating rates of demand in flows is expressed in terms of percentage ratios
of maximum or minimum yearly, monthly, daily or hourly rates to their
corresponding average values.
The various types of water demands may be broken down into the following classes:
 Domestic Water Demand
 Industrial and Commercial Water Demand
 Demand for Public uses
 Fire Demand
 Demand for Losses
For a well-established design of a supply scheme, the above demands should be
evaluated to the most accuracy.
Domestic Water Demand
This includes the water required in private buildings for drinking, cooking, bathing, lawn
sprinkling, gardening, sanitary purposes, etc. The amount of domestic water consumption per
person shall vary according to the living conditions of the consumers.
In most countries the domestic demand accounts about 50 to 60% of the total demand. The
total domestic water demand shall be equal to the total design population multiplied by per
capita domestic consumption.

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Industrial and Commercial Water Demand

This includes the quantity of water required to be supplied to offices, factories, different
industries, hotels, hospitals etc. This quantity will vary considerably with the nature of the
city and with the number and type of industries and commercial establishments present in it.
The use of water in industries is usually for cooling. Major industries use their own supply
(>10,000 m3/day) for reasons of not degrading the citys water supply and cost.
In supply estimation, to include or exclude industrial demand is a problem in that if design
includes, the industry later may say that it would have its own and if it is ignored, and
industrial development may be discouraged. Hence on average a margin of 20-25 % of the
total water demand may be taken for design.
Public demand
This is the quantity of water required for public utility purposes such as watering of municipal
or public parks, gardening, washing and sprinkling on roads, use on public fountains, waste
water conveyance, etc. Usually the demand may range from 2-5% of the total demand.
Fire demand
The quantity of water required for extinguishing fire should be easily available and always
kept stored in storage reservoirs. Fire hydrants are usually fitted to the water mains and fire-
fighting pumps are connected to these mains by the fire brigade personnel when a fire breaks
out.
Losses
This includes the water lost in leakage due to bad plumbing or damaged meters, stolen water
due to unauthorized water connection and others. These losses should be taken in to account
while estimating the total requirements. Losses are usually taken as high as 35% of the total
consumption.
Therefore,

.2. Factors affecting losses and wastes

As discussed here in above, enormous amount of water is lost in leakages, wastes, thefts, etc.
The various factors, which give rise to losses and the measures to control these losses, are
summarized below.
i. Loosen joints: due to bad plumbing. Usually joints are leaky.
ii. Pressure in the distribution system: higher pressure in the distribution system leads to
higher leakage losses. This happens when a scheme is designed to serve multi storey
buildings. Thus such buildings are encouraged to develop their own storage.
iii. System of supply: In intermittent system of supplies, the leakage loss is reduced, as it does
not occur for the whole daylong.
iv. Metering: In metered supply, wastage is considerably reduced because people become
more careful in using water as they pay for it.
v. Illegal connections: People connect their personal pipes illegally to the system.

.3. Variation in Demand

Per capita demand (q) is the annual average daily consumption of a person.

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Seasonal variation: such variation occurs due to larger use of water in summer season, lesser
use in winter and much less in rainy season. This also occurs in industries, which are
involved in processing of cash crops at the time of harvesting.
Daily variation: Day to day variations reflect household and industrial activity. For example
water consumption is high on Sundays and holidays.
Hourly variation: Hourly consumption usually attains peak value between about 7 A.M. to 10
A.M. and then again from 7 P.M. to 9 P.M.
These variations in the demand or draft should be generally assessed and known in order to
design supply pipes, service reservoirs, distribution pipes etc. To these peak values, an
allowance is given for sudden and heavy withdrawal for fire fighting.
Assessment of Normal variation
Small towns experience a more variable demand and shorter periods of draft or consumption
with greater departure from the mean. Maximum demands (monthly, daily, or hourly) are
generally expressed as ratios of their means. The ratios may vary considerably for different
communities.
Maximum daily consumption = 1.5 (average daily demand), i.e., .
Water Demand in liters/hr

35

30

25

20

15

10

2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20 22 24

Hours

Figure 1-1: Hourly variation in demand

i. Maximum hourly demand = 1.5 (average hourly consumption of the max day),
i.e.,

where is in l/day or m3/day and is in l/hr or m3/hr.

Coincident draft
It is very unlikely that a fire breaks out when water is being used by consumers at the
maximum hourly draft or consumption, . Hence for design purposes the total draft
is not taken as the sum of the maximum hourly demand and fire demand but is taken
as the sum of maximum daily demand and fire demand or the max hourly demand which
ever is greater. The maximum daily demand, Q day-max, when added to the fire demand for
working the total draft is known as coincident draft .
Consider the following simple sketches showing possible layouts of water supply schemes.

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Pipe grids

Conduit Conduit
IR SR
Type I Type III

Distribution system

Pipe grids

Conduit Conduit
F SR
IR Type I Type III

Distribution system

Pipe grids

Conduit Conduit Conduit

LLP TP HLP SR
Type I Type II Type III
Well fields
Distribution system

Rivers Pipe grids

Conduit Conduit Conduit

LLP TP HLP SR
Type I Type II Type III

Distribution system

Note: IR is Impounding Reservoir, SR is Service Reservoir, TP is Treatment Plant, LLP is

Low Lift Pump, HLP is High Lift Pump and F is Filters.
Figure 1-2: Sketches showing possible layouts of water supply schemes.
The various components of the system involved in the scheme should be designed for a
specific demand value as given in the following recommendations.
Source of Supply (reservoirs, rivers, wells, etc.) may be designed for or
occasionally .
Pipe mains (types I and II), i.e., pipes taking water from the source to the service reservoir
may be designed for .

Filters and other units in the treatment plant may be designed for or ,
whichever is greater.
Pumps with one standby:

a) Low lift pumps may be designed for or , whichever is

greater.

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b) High lift pumps may be designed for or , whichever is

greater.
Note: when pumps do not work for all the 24 hours, such as in small towns, the design draft
or demand should be multiplied by a factor .

Distribution system and type III pipes should be designed for or , whichever is
greater.
Service reservoir should be designed to handle
a. Hourly fluctuations of flow;
b. The emergency reserve;
c. The provision required when pumps satisfy the entire days demand less than 24
hours; and
d. The fire demand.
Hence the service reservoir may be designed to provide storage approximating full
day consumption.
.4. Effect of variation in demand on the design capacities of different
components of water supply schemes
The annual average demand is not sufficient, although very useful for the design of various
components of a water supply scheme. There are wide variations in the use of water in
different seasons, in different months of the year, in different days of the month, and in
different hours of the day. These normal variations in the demand should be assessed and
known in order to design rising mains, service reservoirs, distribution systems, pumping
stations etc.

Hourly demand rates are considered in the design of distribution systems, whereas daily
variation is useful for designing rising main, pumping and treatment units. Seasonal variation
is considered for estimating the capacity of impounding reservoir.

There is no clearly defined relationship between average and peak flow which is applicable in
all communities. For this reason each community should be carefully studied to determine
variations in rate with time and location. Pumping records, that is, the flows measured at the
pumping station or water source, are extremely important in evaluating variations in demand.

In the absence of data it may be necessary to estimate the maximum rates. The maximum
daily consumption is likely to be 180 percent of the annual average and may reach 200
percent. i.e.
Maximum daily consumption =180 percent of the average daily demand
=1.8 * average daily demand

Good rich formula is sometimes used to for estimating consumptions:

In this equation P is the percentage of the annual average rate and t is the length of the periods
in days. The formula predicts the maximum daily rate to be 180 percent of the annual average
rate, weekly maximum to be 148 percent of the annual average rate, and the monthly
maximum to be 128 percent of the annual average.

The maximum hourly rate is likely to be about 150 percent of the average for that day. i.e.
= 1.5*average hourly demand of the maximum day

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=
Hourly peaks as high as 1000 percent of the annual averages have been recorded in suburban
areas and peaks of 300 to 400 percent are not uncommon in residential areas of large cities.
Residential areas have high ratios of peak to average flow because of lawn watering, air
conditioning, and major water using appliances such as washing machines, and dishwashers.
The ratio of peaks to average flow increases with decreasing population density.

Variation of demand

60

50 Average demand
D em an d in lp cd

40

30

20

10

0
0 5 10 15 20 25 30
Tim e in Hrs

Figure 1.1 Variation of Demand

Demand variation effects of on the design of the capacities of different components of a water
supply scheme.

1) The source of supply such as wells, springs, etc may be designed for maximum daily
consumption or sometimes for average daily consumption.
2) The pipe mains taking water from the source to the treatment plant and the service
reservoir may be designed for maximum daily demand. Or in some cases it can be
designed based on the provision of economical conveyance at average daily flow at
the end of the design period with suitable velocities under all anticipated flow
conditions.
3) The filter and other units at the treatment plant may be designed for maximum daily
draft. But most treatment units will be designed on the basis of average daily flow at
the end of the design period, since overloads do not result in major losses of treatment
efficiency.
4) The Pump lifting the water is designed for the maximum daily draft plus some
additional reserve for breaking down and repairs.
5) The distribution system should be designed for the maximum hourly draft of the
maximum day
6) The service reservoir is designed to take care of the hourly fluctuation, fire demands,
emergency reserve, and the provision required when pumps have to pump the entire
day’s water demand in fewer hours than 24 hours.

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1.6. Design Period and Population Forecasting

The number of years from the date of design to the estimated date when the maximum
conditions of the design will be reached is called the design period.
Design period is related to the length of useful life of the unit, its first cost, ease and cost of
increasing its capacity and possibility of being obsolete. The design period should neither be
too long nor should it be too short and in principle it cannot exceed the useful life of the
structures and is guided by the following considerations.
 Useful life of component
 Easy and difficulty that is likely to be faced in expansion
 Amount and availability of additional investment likely to be incurred
for additional provision
 The rate of interest
 Anticipated rate of population growth
Amount and availability of additional investments likely to be incurred for additional periods;
and
The rate of interest on the borrowings and the additional money invested.
Table 1-1: commonly used design periods.
Community water wells 5 - 10
Large dams and conduits 25 - 50
Filter plants and distribution system 10 - 25
Trunk lines, source to city 15 - 25
Pumping stations 10
Population forecasting
Design of water supply scheme should consider functionality of the various
components now and in the future when population increases. The following
population forecasting methods may be used in the design of water supply projects.
I) Arithmetic increase method: This method of prediction of population is
based on a uniform increment of increase.
In this method, the increase in population from decade to decade is assumed
constant. Mathematically it can be expressed as :

Where dP/dt is the rate of change of population and K is a constant. K is

determined graphically or from populations in successive censuses as:
K= ∆p/∆t
The arithmetic average of the population increase for the past 3 or 4 decades
is used as the design growth rate. The population in the future is then
estimated from

Where Pt is the population at some time in the future, Po is the present

population, and t is the period of the projection. It gives relatively lower
result and suitable for old and saturated cities.

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II) Geometric growth rate (Uniform Percentage) method:

In this method, it is assumed that the percentage increase in population
from decade to decade is constant and the increase is compounded over
the existing population every decade. It can be expressed as:

It can be generalized as:

Where n is number of decade, Pn is future population, and r is growth rate (%)

It gives higher value and suitable for new/ young industrial cities. The
percentage growth rate ( r ) can be estimated by computing the average growth
rates of several known decades of the past as:

Knowing r1, r2, …,rn for each decade, the average value can be found either by
arithmetic or geometric average method.

Incremental increase method

III. Incremental increase method: - It is based on the assumption that the

decade growth rate is progressively increasing or decreasing depending
upon whether the average of the incremental increases in the past data is
positive or negative. The population for the future decade is worked out by
adding the mean arithmetic say (x) to the last known population as in the
arithmetic increase method and to this is added the average of the
incremental increase say (y), once for the first decade and twice for the
second decade and so on. Thus the method assumes that the growth rate in
the first, second, a third etc. decades is (x+y), (x+2y), (x+3y) etc
respectively. Mathematically it can be written as:

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This can be generalized as:

Pn

III) Curvilinear Method: This technique involves the graphical projection of

the past population growth curve, continuing whatever trends the
historical data indicate. A commonly used variant of this method
includes comparison of the projected growth to the recorded growth of
other cities of large size. The cities chosen for the comparison should be
as similar as possible to the city being studied. Geographical proximity,
likeness of economic base, access to similar transportation systems, and
other such factors should be considered.
IV) Decreasing rate of increase (Declining Growth) method: This method is
similar to the geometric growth rate method except for an assumption of
a changing rate of increase rather than a constant rate of increase. And it
may be formulated as follows.
V) Logistic Method: It combines a geometric rate of growth at low
population with a declining growth rate as the city approaches some
limiting population. The hypothesis of logistic growth may be tested by
plotting the census data on logistic paper-on that it will appear as a
straight line if the hypothesis is valid.
VI) Ratio Method: The ratio method of forecasting relies on the population
projections made by professional demographers for the state or the
nation. The method is based on the assumption that the ratio of the
population of the city being studied to that of the larger group will
continue to change in the future in the same manner that has occurred in
the past. The ratio is calculated for a series of censuses, the trend line is
projected in to the future, and the projected ratio is multiplied by the
forecast regional population to obtain the city’s population in the year of
interest.

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