Most water-saving advice is about fittings — aerators, dual flush, fixing the drip. Those matter, and our water-saving plumbing tips cover them properly.
This page is about the losses specific to how Delhi NCR homes actually get water: a rooftop tank that overflows every time the pump runs, a purifier sending water down the drain around the clock because a valve stopped closing, and a household that runs taps to check whether supply has come. None of those show up as a dripping tap, and all three are larger.
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In this guide
1. Stop the overhead tank overflowing
This is the biggest single loss in most Delhi buildings, and because it happens on the roof while everyone is downstairs, nobody sees it.
- Go up and watch one full fill. Once. If water is pouring from the overflow pipe every time the pump runs, you are losing a tankful of overflow on every cycle.
- A float valve or an automatic level controller is the fix, and it stops the pump or closes the inlet at the right level so nobody has to remember. Retrofitting one is a plumber’s job on an existing tank.
- Check the float that is already there. Many tanks have one that has jammed with scale or lost its ball. It looks fitted and does nothing.
- Point the overflow where you will notice it, not into a drain. An overflow that splashes onto the terrace where someone walks gets reported; one that runs quietly into a pipe never does.
- Set a pump timer or an alarm as a stopgap if you fill manually, rather than relying on remembering. Our water supply and tank tips cover pump habits in more detail.
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Get free quotes2. The purifier drain is running more than you think
A membrane-based purifier sends water to the drain by design — that flow is what keeps the membrane surface clear. What is not by design is a machine that never switches off.
- Check whether water is going to the drain when the tank is full and the unit should be idle. If it is, the shut-off or float has failed, and it is wasting water every hour of every day. It is also usually an inexpensive part.
- Measure your reject ratio with a bucket. Ten minutes, no cost, and it gives you a figure to compare after the next service. Our reject water guide explains how and what moves the number.
- Keep the pre-filters current. A choked pre-filter collapses the treated-water output while the drain flow carries on, which is the worst possible ratio for the cheapest possible cause.
- Collect the reject water in a covered bucket or drum by extending the drain tube into it. Keep it covered so it does not become a mosquito site, and empty it daily.
- Use it for flushing, mopping, balcony and car washing. Reject water is your input water with the dissolved solids concentrated, so it is harder than tap water — use it on plants only heavily diluted, and never for drinking, cooking or a steam iron.
- Do not tip away treated water casually. Every litre you pour out cost you the reject water made alongside it.
3. Work with the supply timing instead of against it
Supply that runs for a few hours a day changes the whole shape of household water use, and a little planning removes a lot of waste.
- Know your actual supply hours and write them somewhere everyone can see. Half the running of taps in a Delhi kitchen is people checking whether water has come.
- Fill the purifier tank during the good hours. Pressure is usually best early, and a unit fed at decent pressure recovers more of what it is given.
- Do the heavy jobs on supply hours, not from stored water — washing machine, floor mopping, vessel washing. Stored water is the reserve, not the working supply.
- Catch the cold-tap wait. The water you run off waiting for the geyser to get hot, or for the cold line to clear in summer, is clean water. A bucket under it fills faster than you expect and covers a day of mopping.
- Check what runs while you are out. If the building pump runs unattended, or a purifier is left cycling all day, that is a loss with nobody in the room.
4. Summer and tanker season
From April onwards the calculation changes, because you may be paying for the water directly and because everything about the system is under more strain.
- Get the tank cleaned before peak summer, not during it. A sediment layer means every downstream filter chokes faster and the whole system works harder — our tank cleaning guide covers what is involved.
- Expect pre-filters to need changing sooner when you are on tanker supply, because the sediment load is higher. A set that lasted the winter may not last a summer — see when to change your RO filter.
- Cover open storage. Uncovered drums and buckets lose water to evaporation on a 45°C terrace and collect dust while they do it.
- Check for leaks before the tanker season, not after the bill. Our plumbing tips cover finding a silent leak.
- Raise shared losses with the RWA. A leaking common line, an overflowing community tank or a pump running unattended costs the whole building, and one person reporting it achieves more than everyone tolerating it.
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How we put this guide together
This guide is compiled from common Delhi NCR service patterns and reviewed by the XpertWorker team. XpertWorker connects you with independent, local professionals — we never charge you a paisa, and each professional sets their own price and quotes you free.