A multiple greywater recovery system has been installed in the classroom buildings in our North Campus that allows reusing sink water in the restrooms for toilet flushing to recover wastewater and to reduce water consumption in the campus in doing so.
Our university has been developing policies and action plans toward a more sustainable campus in response to increasing used campus areas and population. With particular emphasis on the research on improving and maintaining water quality and improving the treatment and safe recycling of wastewater in order to contribute to the Sustainable Development Goal of Clean Water and Sanitation, it also focuses on project implementation in line with its policies aiming for the reuse of wastewater in its newly constructed buildings.
The greywater recovery system was installed as a product of the sustainability project titled “İstanbul Medeniyet Üniversitesinde Lavabo Sularının Tuvaletlerde Sifon Suyu Olarak Kullanımını Mümkün Kılacak Bir Sistemin Geliştirilmesi” (Development of a System that Allows Sink Water to Be Reused for Toilet Flushing in Istanbul Medeniyet University), in which Prof.Dr. Erkan ŞAHİNKAYA of IMU Bioengineering Department serves as the coordinator and Asst. Prof. Yasin KARAGÖZ of IMU Mechanical Engineering Department as a researcher with the aim to reduce water consumption in our campus areas. Aiming to support the Sustainable Development Goals and our institution’s contribution to these goals, the project was financed by IMU Scientific Research Projects Coordination Office. Given our projected campus population of 17,000 including the students and staff, it devises strategies to accomplish the reuse of campus greywater by our constantly growing campus population in order to reduce water consumption per capita. Based on the annual water consumption monitoring data in our campus areas, the project team calculated the annual amount of flush water for such population to amount to 65,000 m3. As a result, a system has been proposed both to prevent wasting of water as a non-renewable natural resource through the reuse of greywater as flush water and to obtain a significant amount of economic benefit. Following finishing of the project with required calculations and other work, the resulting model was implemented in the ground-floor restroom in Block B Classroom Building in IMU North Campus.
The project prototype manufactured for our campus buildings not only aims to reduce the amount of water consumption in our campus areas, but also to serve as a model for individuals and institutions toward improving wastewater management and safe reuse of water by monitoring water reuse and releasing system data and efficiency results to the public in line with our vision “to be an original and civilization-oriented university that adds universal values to the works of science, technology, and art it generates.”
An excerpt from the project overview:
Water is not an unlimited resource. Turkey is in the semi-arid climate zone and suffers from water stress. On top of that, there is a local shortage of water particularly in Istanbul due to the growing population. Domestic water consumption per person in Turkey is about 220 L/person/day. The water used for flushing in toilets is of drinking water quality and accounts for %25 of overall water consumption. Reuse of less contaminated greywater for toilet flushing will help conserve water resources by saving %25 of water and reducing the amount of wastewater entering the sewer system. Given the recent mucilage problem in the Marmara Sea, which is now on the agenda of our country, reclaiming of greywater can significantly reduce the volume of wastewater discharged into the sea.
