Hyderabad City mosques adopt new methods to save water

Hyderabad: Four mosques in the city are saving 2,000 liters of water each just by adopting 'green taps' that stop leakage. Instead of the leaky taps normally found at wazukhanas in mosques, these are molded valves fitted with a jockey or joy stick. Pressing the stick the water flows out; stop pressing and the tap goes dry. "Earlier, we used to spend around 4,000 liters of water daily. Now, we use only 2,000 liters, a saving of 2,000 liters on just wazu," said a member.

Masjid e Fatima, Brindavan Colony in Toli Chowki, Masjid e Ayesha, Paramount Hills Colony in Toli Chowki, Masjid e Taqwa, IAS Colony in Toli Chowki, and Masjid e Azizia in Mehdipatnam are using these green taps. With the introduction of these taps, the water usage has drastically come down.

User-friendly and affordable (at Rs 100 to 150 a piece), the wazu tap, as it is called, has been developed by Mumbai-based businessmen and cousins Faisal Hawa and Javed A Hawa. So far, 120 mosques and madrassas across India, including famous seminary Nadwatul Ulema in Lucknow, have been using these taps. The makers say that the demand for the taps has been growing. Hafiz Yasin of Islampura madrassa in Gujarat's Sabarkantha district said his institution of 500 students saves 20,000 liters per day.

Wazu is a mandatory ritual for Muslims before they prepare for any holy task, be it namaaz or reciting Quran. Islam accepts its adherents to remain ba wazu (with wazu), which gets broken even by passing out gas. Wazu is especially important for worshippers at mosques and students and teachers at madrassas. Normal taps keep running as long as namazis wash their arms up to the elbows, their entire face and feet up to ankles.

"Ever since I was a teenager, wasting of water for wazu has been bothering me. I always wanted to do something about it. Apart from conserving water, a Hadith (Saying) of the Prophet where he shows displeasure with wasting of water has been also ringing at the back of his mind, while I was seeking ways to solve the problem," said Faisal.

Faisal discussed the idea of water saving tap with his cousins. Javed, who manufactures valves for the oil and gas industry, then sat with his R&D team to develop a design. "We had seen a tap at a mosque in Ahmedabad, but it was leaking and needed to be designed differently. Instead of using steel, we have used molded plastic to keep it light and cost effective," says Javed.

In the new wazu tap, water stops flowing every time a namazi takes his hands off. "Taps with sensors also save water to some extent, but then sensors are very expensive and charity-run mosques and madrasas cannot afford them," said Faisal. As this process helps us, this system is successfully established in different cities, such as Pune, Mumbai, Lucknow and Chennai.