Water conservation consists of any beneficial reduction in water losses, waste, or use . Conserving water can be beneficial in many ways, but one important reason for conservation is that it can help systems avoid, downsize, or postpone water and wastewater projects. Moreover, when the cost of supplying drinking water and processing wastewater is reduced, financial resources can be used to meet other needs. In connection with infrastructure funding, the value of conservation is appropriately assessed in terms of supply, treatment, and distribution costs that can be avoided because of planned reductions in water demand. In other words, permanent conservation savings that are realized today will have increasing value into the future.
Planning is a means of anticipating the future and organizing activities in response.
Conservation planning can help water system managers take inventory of their existing efforts and identify new opportunities. Planning can help utilities manage competing goals and rising costs, such as those associated with SDWA compliance, infrastructure improvement, and meeting demand growth. The investment that water system managers make in conservation planning should yield savings that can be measured in terms of water and dollars. The planning approach suggested by these Guidelines is designed to be accessible and relatively inexpensive. It is very important for utilities to know exactly what planning requirements apply in their states and how other plans already prepared by the system might be used in conjunction with these Guidelines.