SM Malls conserve water

For the government, providing the public with this most basic of need is an imperative even as a more effective water management system becomes more urgent in the light of climate change, pollution and the demands of an unregulated population boom.

But how about the private sector?

SM Prime Holdings, owner of the largest network of shopping malls in the country, has started a campaign that substantially reduces its water usage by over 1,000 tons every year.

By replacing the traditional urinals with Falcon Water-free Urinals, all SM Mall branches nationwide can save up to 1,431 tons of water each year which is equivalent to 260 water trucks per day.

At present, out of its 28 shopping malls nationwide, 24 are already using a total of 2,205 Falcon Water-free Urinals. Falcon’s concept of water conservation using water-free urinals is expected to dominate the high traffic toilets not only in shopping malls but also in fastfood chains, gas stations, cinemas, bus terminals, air and seaports, among others.

SM targets to save up to 250 million liters of water every year and bring it back to host communities nationwide.

While SM Malls have sewer treatment plants in all their malls, their treated effluent which they release to the environment will mix up again with the polluted rivers and streams because of the absence of sewerage system.

Studies show that there is hardly any sewerage system in the country to connect to. Even Metro Manila has only a mere seven percent sewerage coverage.

The Clean Water Act which was passed into law in 2004 calls for all households and public buildings including schools, business establishments and hotels to connect to a sewerage system within five years of the passage of the law.

SM Supermalls is currently on track in complying to the water conservation and water treatment call of the government.

In SM Megamall and SM North EDSA alone where there are 200 and 142 public urinals respectively, their water savings go as high as 400 tons per day which is equivalent to 72 water trucks.

According to Bien Mateo, SM Supermalls assistant vice president, the use of innovative water-free urinals, enable the company to post substantial savings aside from generating goodwill in their host community.

“We hope to cover all our mall branches in the next few months. This water conservation program is our way of taking care of a very precious resource that would eventually benefit our host cities and communities nationwide,” Mateo said.

Records show that flushing-out urine in public toilets inside shopping malls in Metro Manila alone could reach as high as almost a billion liters of precious water per year. Urinals consume an average of 3 liters of water each  time its male visitor relieves himself.

SM, since two years ago, has embarked on a water conservation scheme as part of its corporate citizenship. It partnered with Falcon Waterfree Philippines, a subsidiary of Falcon Waterfree Technologies which manufactures the water-free urinals.

“Aside from the huge savings derived from cost of water, SM Mall management, for the first time, has drastically minimized, if not eliminated the maintenance cost of the conventional urinals,” Mateo observed.

SM figures showed that on the average, the combined weekday pedestrian traffic for North EDSA and Megamall branches, two of the largest malls in Metro Manila, is about 475,000 persons per day.

Of this, about 40% or 191,000 are male of which 70 percent or 133,000 use the urinals. In actual study, a total of 401,000 liters of water are consumed through the flushing of the urinals inside the men’s toilet using the traditional urinals.

Realizing the staggering volume of water needed to maintain the men’s comfort room alone, interest and acceptance of a water-free system has grown as more industry players felt a sense of urgency about finding solutions in a future where water can become less available and therefore much more costly.