Journal of Environmental Treatment Techniques
2020, Volume 8, Issue 3, Pages: 875-883
J. Environ. Treat. Tech.
ISSN: 2309-1185
Journal web link: http://www.jett.dormaj.com
An Indicator Framework Approach on
Manufacturing Water Assessment towards
Sustainable Water Demand Management
Nurul Sa’dah Bahar , Zainura Zainon Noor , Azmi Aris1,2, Nurul Ashikeen Binti
1
1,3*
Kamaruzaman4
1
Faculty of Engineering, School of Civil Engineering, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, 81310 Skudai, Johor Bahru, Malaysia
2
Centre of Environmental Sustainability and Water Security, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, 81310 Skudai, Johor Bahru, Malaysia
3
Faculty of Engineering, School of Chemical and Energy Engineering, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, 81310 Skudai, Johor Bahru, Malaysia
4
National Water Services Commission (SPAN), Cyberjaya, 63000, Selangor, Malaysia
Received: 02/01/2020
Accepted: 19/05/2020
Published: 20/09/2020
Abstract
Population growth, industrialization, urbanization and change of life style have increased global water demand. Although agricultural
water demand accounts as the largest overall user, emerging economics causes industrial and domestic water demand to increase
tremendously especially in developing countries. One sector that contributes to rapid industrial demand is manufacturing sector. Despite
many assessment methods being used in the past, it has been seen that measurement of manufacturing water use performance could only
be done for specific manufacturing factory or specific industries. Due to lack of a holistic framework towards assessment water
performance in any given manufacturing factory, this paper introduces an indicator-framework called Malaysia Manufacturing Industry
Water Benchmarking System (MIWABS). This indicator framework was developed based on relevant sets of indicators arranged under
sustainability pillars criteria. MIWABS uses stakeholder-driven approach whereby the established indicators and Analytic Hierarchy
Process (AHP) assigning weightage were done through workshops and questionnaires. Rubber glove and semiconductor industries were
chosen as demonstration study to validate the indicator-framework. The results highlighted the importance to emphasize on recycling
water in manufacturing facilities. Besides that, manufacturing factories shall also explore other water alternatives such as groundwater
and river to cater for their factory and production needs to reduce the dependency of potable water by public water operator. It is hoped
that MIWABS can give input and policy direction as part of water demand management strategies in Malaysia.
Keywords: Manufacturing water use, Water demand management, Indicator-framework, Sustainability
drinking and sanitation (3). Industrialization does play an
important role in boosting development in economy (4). In low-
and middle-income countries, industrial water demand is about
1
Introduction1
1
.1 Background
Nowadays, sustainable water resource management is an
1
0%, however, this percentage is significantly different for high
overall concern in the world. With increasing population and
urbanization expansion, the world will face a severe global
water deficit (1) if water demand continues to rise with the
finite water supply. Unavoidably, population increase will have
direct impact to meet the demand in all sectors including
domestic, agricultural and industrial sector (2). Growing water
demand of 55% is projected by 2050. Among all sectors, an
increase of 400% for manufacturing water demand is expected
from 2000 to 2050. Multiple approaches have been used in
assessing manufacturing water use. In those separate studies,
indicators such as water per product, recycling rate and
wastewater generation had been evaluated for optimization.
These indicators are arranged according to sustainability pillar
criteria as shown in Table 1.
GDP countries where industrial water takes up about 60% of
the total water demand. Therefore, since water resources are
shared among sectors, assessment of water use in
manufacturing sector is important. For example in China,
economic transformation tremendously has changed the water
demand proportion (5). The shift of water demand causes more
initiatives to be introduced such as the Three Red Lines to
control water use (6). All previous research had been carried
out to optimize and minimize water use in primary activities
such as process water and cooling water. Besides that, they also
investigated minimization of wastewater generation that can be
harmful to the environment. These approaches used indicators
or drivers that reflect the current condition and helped to
monitor for future trend as well. However, these indicators have
yet to be presented in a holistic way to assess the performance
of manufacturing water use. Thus, this paper aims to introduce
the development of indicator-framework for manufacturing
Focusing within a manufacturing facility, common water
use is for the manufacturing process such as fabricating,
cleaning, cooling, transporting a product, embedded as final
product, cooling system, water treatment plant and also for
Corresponding author: Zainura Zainon Noor, (a) Faculty of Engineering, School of Civil Engineering, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia,
1310 Skudai, Johor Bahru, Malaysia and (b) Faculty of Engineering, School of Chemical and Energy Engineering, Universiti Teknologi
Malaysia, 81310 Skudai, Johor Bahru, Malaysia. Email: zainurazn@utm.my.
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