The water restrictions in many parts of the country show no sign of being rolled back soon. With drought still causing serious water shortages, industries that rely on water have to get creative on the two days in five that water is restricted. Water recycling technologies are booming. For one drink shop owner, a revolution in ice-making has made all the difference.
A store employee scoops up a big ladleful of ice cubes. They’re an indispensable part of business for a hand-shaken drinks store.
Every 12 minutes, the ice machine freezes new water and produces a sheet of ice cubes. These two machines are working constantly. But in the first week after the water restrictions came in, the store was almost out of water.
Yang Ping-han
Store owner
How come the water tower was empty so fast? It turned out it was because we use so many ice cubes, so we were using almost 6,000 liters of water a day to freeze in the machines.
They worked out the ice machines were the top water guzzlers. They’re both on for 12 hours a day – and they’re not optional.
Hsu Chin-chia
Water purifier manufacturer
Our water freezer recycles 90% of water, so now in their freezing process, they will use less than 600 liters.
This water purifier manufacturer has a solution. They developed a mini version of the circular water-cooling systems used in manufacturing, redesigned for use in a drink shop. The circular system reuses the water again and again. For this store it could save 5,400 liters a day.
Yang Ping-han
Store owner
Our ice machines save 5,400 liters of fresh water a day now. Over 30 days, we save 162,000 liters. On our water bill on Tariff No. 4, one unit of water is NT$12.075. So in a month we can save approximately NT$2,000 on our water bill.
That might not sound like big bucks, but in times of drought, every little helps. Recycling water can help make this most precious of resources go around.