Tel: 80008002 - 17991485 - 36053099 - 36053191

Fax: 17006427
P.O. Box: 2
Email: water.conservation@ewa.bh
 ‫ﺇﺣﺘﺴﺎﺏ ﺍﳌﻴﺎﻩ ﺍﳌﻔﻘﻮﺩﺓ ﺟﺮﺍﺀ ﺗﺴﺮﺑﺎﺕ ﺍﳌﻴﺎﻩ ﺍﻟﺼﻐﻴﺮﺓ‬
COUNT OF FLUID LOST DUE TO SMALL LEAKAGE
Centilitre
‫ﻗﻄﺮﺓ ﻓﻲ ﺍﻟﺜﺎﻧﻴﺔ‬
Centilitres
One Drop Litres
Per Second
Litres
Litres
Centilitre
‫ﻗﻄﺮﺗﺎﻥ ﻓﻲ ﺍﻟﺜﺎﻧﻴﺔ‬
Centilitres
Two Drops
Per Second Litres
Litres
Litres
Centilitres
‫ﻗﻄﺮﺍﺕ ﻣﺘﻘﻄﻌﺔ‬
Litres
Drops Breaking
To Stream Litres
Litres
Litres

‫ﺗﺪﻓﻖ ﻗﻄﺮﺍﺕ ﺍﳌﻴﺎﻩ ﺑﺤﺠﻢ‬ Centilitres

1/ Litres
16″ (1.6 mm)
Stream Litres
Litres
Litres
Centilitres
‫ﺗﺪﻓﻖ ﻗﻄﺮﺍﺕ ﺍﳌﻴﺎﻩ ﺑﺤﺠﻢ‬
Litres
1/ (3.2 mm)
8″
Litres
Stream
Litres
Litres
Litres
‫ﺗﺪﻓﻖ ﻗﻄﺮﺍﺕ ﺍﳌﻴﺎﻩ ﺑﺤﺠﻢ‬
3/ Litres
16″ (4.8 mm)
Stream Litres
Litres
Litres
Litres
‫ﺗﺪﻓﻖ ﻗﻄﺮﺍﺕ ﺍﳌﻴﺎﻩ ﺑﺤﺠﻢ‬
Litres
1/ (6.4 mm)
4″
Litres
Stream
Litres
Litres
 Technical guidelines for internal water plumbing system

Introduction:
Electricity & Water Authority (EWA) is investing huge amount of money
to provide potable water to all domestic, commercial & industrial
customers in the Kingdom of Bahrain. EWA is also very keen to
preserve the country’s natural water resources by following all means
and ways to change erroneous behavior through continuous
conservation and educational programs, campaigns and issuing water
regulations that will contribute to preserve water resources and avoid
water wastage, its contamination and misuse.

In view of the above, EWA is issuing this comprehensive Technical

Guidelines for Internal Plumbing System, which contains the most
important clauses in the Ministerial Decree No.(1) /2004 for Water
Regulation System. The implementation of these guidelines is
expected to have a positive impact on water saving and bill reduction.
The Guidelines comprises the followings:

 Responsibility of Electricity & Water Authority (EWA):

The Authority will provide suitable sizes of water connection
for domestic, industrial & commercial customers based on
their requirements.

 Storage:
• The main domestic storage tank must be provided on the ground
level. The inlet connection to the main storage tank must not
exceed one meter height. The ground storage tank should not
be located far away from the water meter for continuous flow
even during the restricted hours.

1
 • Total storage capacity of ground and roof tanks should not be
less than three-days consumption of the premises.

• Guidance may be found in the table below to workout the

daily requirements of the premises.

No Type Litres/day Remarks

1 Villas 1050 Per Bed Room

2 Flats 750 Per Bed Room

Per Staff (6 to 8 hours
3 Working staff 35 working offices)
Per visitor (if visitors are
4 Visitors for Offices 5 spending 1-2 hours)
5 Students of Schools 15 Per Student
6 Students of Technical Schools 20 Per Student
7 Hostel 180 Per Student
Per bed (including working staff
8 Hospital 455
& other usage in the hospital)

9 Visitors for Health Centers 10 Per visitor (if visitors are

spending more than 2 hours)
10 Labour Camp 180 Per worker
Per bed (including Kitchen
11 Hotel 275 usage & cleaning)
12 Car Wash 100 Per Car
13 Laundry for washing 10 Per kilogram (Cloth)
14 Cattle-Livestock 50 Per Head

2
  Storage Capaity:
The storage capacity based on the data elaborated in the below tables,
which includes ground and roof storage tanks.

The capacity has been calculated according to per capita consumption,

which reaches to 350 l/day and average the nmber of 3 persons per
room. The correction to the average done as per the standard capacity
of storage tanks available in the market

 Storage Capacity for Villas:

No. of Roof Storage Ground Storage Total Storage
Room (Liter) (Liter) (Liter)
1 700 350 1050
2 1400 700 2100
3 2100 1050 3150
4 2800 1400 4200
5 3500 1750 5250
6 4200 2100 6300
7 4900 2450 7350
8 5600 2800 8400
9 6300 3150 9450
10 7000 3500 10500

 Storage Capacity for Flats:

No. of Roof Storage Ground Storage Total Storage
Room (Liter) (Liter) (Liter)
1 500 250 750
2 750 500 1250
3 1000 500 1500
4 1250 750 2000
5 1500 1000 2500
6 2000 1000 3000
7 2250 1250 3500
8 2500 1500 4000
9 3000 1500 4500
10 3250 1750 5000

3
 • All storage tanks should be of white colour & to be kept in shade
to avoid direct sun rays.
• If the water requirements for the garden is more than 1 cubic
meter a day, it is advisable to install a separate irrigation tank
connected directly to the EWA supply line. The inlet pipe
should be at higher than the main domestic tank.

 Plumbing works:
• For new construction or major renovation projects, plumbing
materials will comply with B.S. standards or equivalent.
• Copper pipes and fittings are not allowed to be
buried/concealed. Rigid pipes of other materials for buried
lines must have a guarantee life of 25 years. Also Buried pipes
should be easily removable for maintenance and replacement
works like pipe-in-pipe system.
• When laying new lines and replacing old ones, invisible lines
should be put through sleeves with chambers at junctions,
tees, elbows, angles or rising lines etc.

4
• All water pipe connections should be fed from the tanks and do
not tap from direct line.

• The internal piping network has to be hydraulically tested

before use in order to locate any water leakages.

5
• Provide sleeves, shade, insulations or white paint on external
water pipes for protection from direct sunrays.

• It is advisable that all internal distribution should be by

gravity flow with multiple outlets supply system.

6
• Minimize to the extent possible length of the pipe from the
water heaters to the taps.

• Water Overflow pipes should not be connected to the drainage,

it should be in a visible location where the discharge of
water can be readily seen or noticed.

7
 • An alarm which is either Audible or Visual SHOULD BE fixed in all
underground or ground lever tanks exceeding 10m3 capacity. The
alarm should be activated when the water level reaches 50mm below
the water tank inlet.

Ground Tank more than (10m3) Capacity Under Ground Tank

8
 Gardening:
EWA is not responsible for the supply of water for
gardening/ irrigation purposes, it recommends the following:
It is advisable that the size of the garden tap should not
exceed 1/2” diameter.
An effective modern and economic irrigation system
with timers should be provided for controlling water
consumption and to be set for early morning or late evening.
S

It is advisable that lawn area should be restricted in size or

best avoided as it consumes plenty of water. A brick pavement
with spaces planted with drought tolerant trees is preferable.

 Water Appliances:
• Automatic sensor type mixers in public places must be considered.

Automatic sensor type mixers

9
• It is advisable to use "Lever" type mixers in normal domestic
places.

"Lever" type mixers

• The volume of flush tanks shall not exceed 6 litres and dual
flushing mechanism shall be used.
• It is advisable to use siphon type flush tank rather than flush
valve system.

• Urinals should be flushed only after use either manually or

by electronic sensor.

10
 • Flow rates shall not exceed the following values:
Maximum Flow at Outlets
Fitting
(Litres/minutes)
Sink Basin / Bib Tap
8

Wash Basin Tap

6

Bath Tap
12

Shower Tap
10

 Water Reuse:
• If the capacity of air conditioning is more than 100 tons, it is
preferable to use the condenser drain water for flushing
systems or gardening purposes.

• It is advisable to re-use the water in industrial premises such

as laundries, car washing services, garment factories
etc. after suitable treatment.

11
 • In major projects, grey water is to be treated and reused for
gardening & flushing purposes. For these purposes, there should be
two separate water supply and two drainage systems with
standby fresh water supply in case of gray water supply outage.
• It is advisable to use Reject Water from the R.O. plants by diverting
it to a separate ground tank and to be used for flushing,
cleaning or gardening etc.

 Violations:
• Direct pumping from the meter can cause water pollution and
create water shortage to the neighboring premises.

Water meter

Ground StorageTank

12
 • Intentionally removal of water meters or damage or breaking.
• Using water before water meter.
‫ﺍﻟﻌﺪﺍﺩ ﺍﻟﺮﺋﻴﺴﻲ‬

‫ﺗﻮﺻﻴﻠﻪ ﻗﺒﻞ ﺍﻟﻌﺪﺍﺩ ﺍﻟﺮﺋﻴﺴﻲ‬

 How to know your water consumption

• Take reading on 1st day (1235,5678).
• Next day take reading at same time (1235,7678).
• Then subtract the readings, you will get your consumption
(2000 Litres/day).
• Compare with the table in (page 2) to check if your consumption
is in the range.

13
 METHODS OF LEAK DETECTION
1) Close all outlets (Taps) and ensure there is no water supply
into the tanks.
2) Take water meter reading. After 15 minutes, take another
reading. If there is a difference, then there is a leak between
the meter and the tank or direct line.

No water supply into the tanks,

Meter must STOP.
3) Mark the water level in the roof tanks.
4) Wait 15 minutes.
5) Check the water level in the tank. If there is a drop in the water
level, then, there is a leak after the tank.

6) To check the internal water lines, close all the taps and then
attach a ribbon or piece of cloth to the end of a rod. Place the
rod into the water tank and let the ribbon or cloth hang near to
the outlet pipes of the tank. If the cloth is sucked into one of the
pipe, it is clear that there is a leak in that particular line.

14
 CAUSES OF WATER SHORTAGE
Water shortage may be due to the following:

• No ground storage tank when the building is more than two

stories in height.
• Not having enough water storage capacity.
• Excessive garden watering.
• Visible or invisible water leaks.
• Wasteful way of using water.
• Improper internal plumbing systems

For an appointment to check the implementation of internal water regulations, the

engineering office will call water conservation section after the completion of plumb-
ing works on the following numbers

Tel: 80008002 - 17991485 - 36053099 - 36053191

Fax: 17006427
P.O. Box: 2
Email: water.conservation@ewa.bh

15
 11. Mechanism to receive and check requests received
electronically from the Municipal One Stop Shop

Mechanism of application process - Planning Stage

Engineering Office
Preparation of all drawings & documents

One Stop Shop / Municipalities

Distribution of applications to all service centers

Water Distribution Directorate Electricity & Water Conservation

Directorate:
Checking the applications, drawings &
documents and verifying the water Checking the applications, drawings &
supply requirements, water meters documents and verifying the
location and storage capacity requirements of water regulations

Water Distribution Directorate

Preparation of temporary
water connection to the site

16
 Mechanism of application process: Implementation Stage

Engineering Office

“WATER REGULATIONS SYSTEM IMPLEMENTATION FORM”

To be sent to Electricity & Water Conservation Directorate

for inspection and approval

2 1

Water Distribution Directorate Electricity & Water Conservation

Directorate
Checking the final approval of
Electricity & Water Conservation Conducting a site visit for inspection
Directorate, water meters location, and verifying the implementation of
storage capacity and then the final water regulations system, and
water supply connection will be given approval of the form.

Electricity & Water

Conservation Directorate

Preparation to issue
“No Objection Certificate”

17
 TYPICAL INTERNAL PLUMBING SYSTEM TO
MULTI STOREY RESIDENTIAL PREMISES DIRECT PUMPING SUPPLY.
TYPE-1

ROOF FLOOR PUMP

To Flat To Flat ( RECOMMENDED )

To Flat To Flat

To Flat To Flat

SEE DETAIL - A

12 mm Meter

12 mm Gate Valve
Internal pipe to 12mm Reducer

150mm c/c
PRV SEE DETAIL - A

DETAIL - A

1st FLOOR

SEE DETAIL - A
M

Bulk Meter
( One / Two Inch)

Gate Valve

GV WM NRV Ground FLOOR

To check the locations of the individual meters, please contact “Water

Service Coordination Groups” at Water Distribution Directorate
(Tel: 17997660)

To get detailed drawings for water meter locations, please visit EWA web-
site www.mew.gov.bh