Revision as of 15:29, 3 April 2019

Water utilisation

2019: saving water

Mohammed Wajihuddin, How these mosques are going green by changing their taps, April 2, 2019: The Times of India

A 150 Fix Is Helping Save Thousands Of Litres Of Water

At Nagpada’s Alexandra cinema hall-turned-mosque in Central Mumbai, use of water for the ritual of wazu (ablution) is down by nearly 75%. The reason is a simple and cheap tap innovation. Instead of the leaky taps normally found at wazukhanas in mosques, these are moulded valves fitted with a jockey or joy stick. Press the stick and water flows out; stop pressing and the tap goes dry.

Zakir Dalkhania, administrator of Idaara-E-Deeniyat, the religious body that runs the Nagpada mosque, said the new taps installed nine months ago have led to substantial water saving as 200 worshippers attend each namaz. “Earlier we used to spend around 26,000 litres of water daily. Now, we use only 8,000 litres — a saving of 18,000 litres on just wazu.”

User-friendly and affordable (at Rs 100-150 apiece), the wadu or wazu tap as it is called has been developed by Mumbai-based businessmen and cousins Faisal Hawa and Javed A Hawa.

So far, 120 mosques and madrassas across India, including the famous seminary Nadwatul Ulema in Lucknow, are using these taps and the demand is growing, say its makers. Hafiz Yasin of Islampura madrassa in Gujarat’s Sabarkantha district said his institution of 500 students saves 20,000 to 25,000 litres per day.

Wazu is a mandatory ritual for a Muslim before he/ she prepares for any holy task, be it namaz or reciting the holy Quran. Islam expects its adherents to remain ba wazu (with wazu), which gets broken even by passing out gas. Wazu is especially important for worshippers at mosques and students and teachers at madrassas.

Normal taps keep running as the namazi cups water in his two hands and washes his arms up to the elbows, his entire face and feet up to ankles.

“Ever since I was a teenager, I would get bothered by the waste of water for wazu. I always wanted to do something about it,” said Faisal, 45, seated at his Nagpada office. Apart from conserving water, adds Faisal, a Hadith (saying) of the Prophet where he shows displeasure with wasting of water, was also at the back of his mind while he was seeking ways to solve the problem.

Faisal discussed the idea of a watersaving tap with his cousin. Javed, who manufactures valves for the oil and gas industry, then sat with his R&D team to develop the design. “We had seen an improvised tap at an Ahmedabad mosque but it was leaking water and needed to be designed differently. Instead of using steel, we have used moulded plastic to keep it light and its cost low,” says Javed.

In the new wazu tap, water stops flowing every time a namazi takes his hands off. “Taps with sensors also save water but then sensors are very expensive and charity-run mosques and madrassas cannot afford them,” explains Faisal.

Maulana Saghir of Govandi-based Madrassa Furqania in Mumbai lauds the new wazu tap as “a boon which is easy to use and saves water.”

As Maharashtra and Mumbai — and the rest of India — prepare for another parched summer, tapping into more such new-age solutions could hold the key to solving the problem of acute water shortage.