As people fast from dawn to dusk, the overall water consumption falls by about 50 per cent during the holy month of Ramadhan. There are many other factors responsible for this phenomenon, the major being closure of food outlets during the day and a total ban on eating and drinking in public during the holy month.
Giving an insight into the trend of drinking water supply during Ramadhan, a company executive of a major water firm in the Sultanate of Oman said, “Supply of drinking water gets drastically affected during the month because the fasting people don’t drink water during the day and those who don’t fast avoid drinking water in public out of respect towards fasting people.” He summarised the fall in domestic demand for water up to 15 per cent while taking together domestic and commercial consumption the decrease is about 50 per cent. The consumption of water becomes relatively low even among those who do not fast due to many factors.
Going by the trend some water companies prefer to go for maintenance in the event of reduced demand.
Almost all the food outlets in the country except for some emergency services at hospitals and hotels remain closed during the day during Ramadhan. Therefore, the requirement for water both for cooking as well as drinking decreases sharply during the day. Even though they require water for evening meal preparations, the demand is far less in comparison to other months of the year.
Moreover, most of the offices discontinue their cafeteria services, which mainly serve tea, coffee and Omani Kahwa, which require water.
Dr Harish commented on the need to compensate for water intake after breaking the fast. “It is necessary to drink as much water as possible during the non-fasting period for the proper functioning of the body. It is necessary to keep the body hydrated, but it is not easy for everyone to compensate day’s water requirement at night. So most of the people tend to drink less water than normal during Ramadhan month,” he said.
This also affects the drinking water supply and overall consumption. Another noticeable trend is the drop in sales of water bottles, which contain 1.5 litres and above and an increase in demand for small water bottles in the sizes of 200ml and 250ml.
“Small bottles are easy to serve during iftar, carry and even distribute during mass iftars at mosques and other public places. People prefer to keep small water bottles and some dates in vehicles to ensure that they can break their fast on time while travelling etc,” said Prakash, who works as a supervisor in a water company in Muscat.
In a way, Ramadhan also works as a month of water conservation, the importance of which is discussed in the holy Quran as well.
@patkaushal
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