A critical review of water studies in construction industry

Abstract

Water is not only a basic need of human beings, but also a strategic economic resource. However, the distribution of water throughout the earth is diverse. At present, water is a challengeable natural resource for many countries and some studies predicted that the world will face a water dilemma in 2025-2030, if not consumed in sustainable way. Moreover, population growth, climate change, and industrialisation are critical factors that impact on the water sector and ultimately result in freshwater shortage and continued water pollution. The current practice considers water as a separate sectoral box in many economic evaluations although water is an integrated resource in many industries. Therefore, the time has come to think out of the box with the cohesiveness of sustainable development. It is a known fact that the construction industry too uses water in almost all the activities and without water no more construction is possible. However, water management during construction is given less attention by the industry stakeholders at present. This is despite an upsurge in the demand for construction activities both in building and civil engineering projects due to speedy industrialisation to cater for the population growth. This paper is based on the literature review of an on-going PhD research. The paper critically reviews the secondary data on water studies conducted in the construction industry. The views and findings on water handling during the physical construction, and strategies towards sustainable water consumption in construction industry are also discussed. In addition, the paper identifies four critical drivers that impact on sustainable practices of water use during the physical construction phase.