Individual decentralized non-potable water system: the need for quality and quantity management

Abstract The deployment of non-potable water systems in residential buildings is growing in view of the need to reduce the current demand for drinking water. This has been occurring even without adequate theoretical basis through technical standards, regulations or specific legislation on the design, implementation and operation of such systems. With this in mind, the aim of this paper is to assess the qualitative and quantitative performance of an individual decentralized system in the operation and maintenance stages. The method used was the case study. Hence, we characterised the system and collected information from users. The results show that the non-drinking water system, in addition to not having an impact on the reduction of water consumption, led to an outbreak of gastrointestinal infection among the population of the building. This fact occurred due to the lack of training of the professionals involved in all stages of the system, particularly in the operation and maintenance phase, which affected the health of users. It is concluded that professional training to run, operate and maintain non-potable systems is essential to ensure the systems' efficiency and to preserve the health of users.