Per Capita Water Demand:

It is defined as the annual average daily requirement of water of one person. It includes domestic needs, institutional needs, water meant for public use (such as street washing, flushing of sewers etc.), industrial and commercial use and fire fighting and etc.

The average daily per capita demand (lpcd) can be written as

Quantity required in 12 months (in litres)/ (365× Population)

Factors Affecting Per Capita Demand

Factors affecting per capita demand may be summarized as listed below.

(a)        Habit of inhabitants

(b)       Public services

(c)        Climate

(d)       System of supply

(e)        Metering of water supply

(f)        System of drainage

(g)       Availability of alternative sources

(h)       Distribution pressure

(i)        Industrialization

(j)         Cost of water

Wet processing industries require more quantity of water for cooling operations. However, requirement varies on type and size of the industries.

Planned cities and towns require considerable amount of water for parks, gardens, hospitals and other government institutions.

Although continuous supply is seldom used, in continuous supply more water is wasted. However, in intermittent supply taps may be left open. The best way to solve this problem is to have overhead tanks for buildings through which water may be used by inhabitants wherever required. If water pressure is more, amount of wastage through leakage and joints will be more.

When water charge is taken based on consumed quantity, the consumption comes under control and people try to minimize wastage.