Water shortage in Turkey has started to shape the habits of the citizens. The size of armature market has reached $1 million with the consumers' preference on savings products. Some 10 percent of the house water is used in kitchens, 15 to 20 percent in washing and 40 percent in bathrooms. The dripping taps cause a loss of daily 30 to 200 liters of water. The use of water-saving armatures, thermostatic water batteries and shower systems in the sector with a size of 5 million units will increase further.
Sanova has received notable demand for Hendrx's ‘Atmosphere water system' device that produces water out of air. The device, which NASA has used for years, and which produces 32 liters of water a day, is being sold for YTL 2,600. There are also devices capable of producing 12 tons of water a day, for $500,000, usually sold for big factories and hospitals.
In VitrA's current product range, there are over 260 lavatory bowls operating with six liters or less water, and over 30 urinals operating with 1 to 4 liters of water. Thermostatic bathroom and shower batteries, smart armatures, low-depth bathtubs are among the products. The new system applicable to all reservoirs enables washing with 3 or 6 liters of water on demand. The new system VitrA has developed, may provide saving approximately by 562 million tons of water a year if used in all houses. This amount is known to be over nine month consumption of Istanbul.
Comfort-photocell water saving device entered Turkish market via Profi-Chemicals four months ago through ARSU Su Arıtma Sistemleri and has reached a sale figure of 10,000 units. The device costs YTL 149.
Mikrosan Makina, with its American partner DRTS Products, created a machine that makes drip irrigation tubing, which provides 85 percent water saving compared to sprinkling system. The cost of one line is 240,000 euros. Waste of water drops from 100 percent to 10 percent, thanks to drip irrigation tubes.
(Turkish Daily News, 07/08/2007)