Thesis (M.Sc.) - Asian Institute of Technology, 2005

A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science

This thesis studies on water end-uses analysis in Khon Kaen province, Thailand. The study area was divided into two parts, Mueng Khon Kaen and Phu Pha Man to be the representative urban and rural area, respectively. The purposes of the study are identifying the factors affecting the amount of water end-uses, bathing, toilet, cloth washing, and dish washing water use, forecasting of water end-uses for next 5 and 10 years, and applying the suitable demand side management. The schedule of the field survey is determined by questionnaire and one-month meter installation. Statistical techniques applied for identifying factor influencing to water use are factor analysis, correlation and multiple regression. As the result, there are many underlying factors of this study such as household size, cloth washing method, household heads occupation, etc. For the factors affecting domestic water end-uses in correlation analysis, the different in water use appliances does not significantly affect to water end-uses in both urban and rural areas. The dominant factors affecting the water use in urban and rural areas are household size and household income level respectively. Moreover, household size from 2 to 4 persons per house can well explain the increasing of water use especially water use for personal activities as toilet and bathing. Likewise, lowest income level, less than 5,000 baht per month, uses lowest of water which not affect to only personal activities but also the household activities as dish washing. In 2014, domestic water use will be accounted for 6.6 per cent, 161 million m3, of Ubolratana and Chulaporn dams. Therefore, developing the water demand management measures should be first considered more than construction new reservoir and wastewater treatment plant which now is the most focused on water supply management in the master plan of many municipalities in Khon Kaen province. For urban areas, the water reuse system for flushing toilet is now not worth but the reuse system for watering is worth to apply. However, in the future if the water charge is included the cost of wastewater treatment, the water reuse for flushing toilet in urban will be interesting point. Moreover, if the water reuse system is performed in cluster of households or village, cost of this system can be reduced. Furthermore, water use appliance modification such as ultra low-flow flush toilet and low-flow shower head is also possible to apply for urban area. For rural areas, reuse system for watering is reasonable to apply.