The importance of securing clean and abundant water

For week three of Building Safety Month, the International Code Council will draw attention to the need for clean, abundant water for all communities. Worldwide, up to 844 million people are lacking access to this vital resource. One way to make this commodity more available to all communities is to implement and maintain the most up-to- codes related to plumbing.

There has been increasing focus on water efficiency in recent years, as droughts in areas such as California have led to the implementation of water conservation rules. These rules were based partially on irrigation standards produced and developed by the Code Council. In addition to adhering to the most up-to-date plumbing codes, there are steps communities can take to conserve water, including identifying locations where water demand and pressure can be reduced; plating drought-tolerant plants and limiting turf grass to 25 percent of landscaping; and aggressively finding and repairing leaks.

“Water is a precious resource and everyone should be able to feel confident that their water is safe,” said Dominic Sims, chief executive officer of the Code Council. “Modern plumbing codes play a huge role in ensuring that you can turn on your tap and draw clean, sufficient water, and advances in efficient technologies result in saving millions of gallons of water every year.”

Learn more about water efficiency and conservation at the Building Safety Month website.