engineering

Intermittent water supply

Intermittent water supply is a engineering topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Intermittent water supply rather than just read about it. In short: A piped water supply and distribution system is intermittent when water continuity is for less than 24 hours a day or not on all days of the week. During this continuity defining factors are water pressure and equity.

Key takeaways

Intermittent water supply belongs to engineering; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Intermittent water supply to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Intermittent water supply from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

A piped water supply and distribution system is intermittent when water continuity is for less than 24 hours a day or not on all days of the week. During this continuity defining factors are water pressure and equity. At least 45 countries have intermittent water supply (IWS) systems. It is contrasted with a continuous or "24/7" water supply, the service standard. No system is intentionally designed to be intermittent, but they may become that way because of system overexpansion, leakage and other factors. As of 2022, there was no feasible method for modelling IWS, including no computer-aided tools. Contamination issues can be associated with an intermittent water distribution system. Global public health impact includes millions of cases of infections and diarrhea, and 1560 deaths annually. A continuous supply is not practical in all situations. In the short term, an IWS may have some benefits. These may include addressing demand with a limited supply in a more economical manner. An intermittent supply may be temporary (e.g., when water reserves are low) or permanent (e.g., where the piped system cannot sustain a continuous supply). Associated factors resulting from an intermittent supply include water extraction by users at the same time, resulting in low pressure and a possibly higher peak demand.

Prevalence About 41 percent of urban water supply systems around the world are intermittent; a critical misutilization considering the fact that these systems are designed to run continuously (i.e., 24 hours a day). About 1.3 billion people have a piped supply that is intermittent, including large populations in Africa, Asia, and Latin America and the Caribbean. This does not include those who do not get piped water at all, about 2.7 billion people. Countries with intermittent supply in some areas and continuous supply in others include India and South Africa. In India, various cities are at various stages of constructing 24/7 supply systems, such as Chandigarh, Delhi, Shimla, and Coimbatore. In Cambodia, Phnom Penh increased coverage from 25% to 85% and duration from 10 to 24 hours a day between 1993 and 2004.

Storage Installation of storage and pumps at residences may offset the intermittency of the water supply. Roof tanks are a common feature in countries where the water supply is intermittent. In Jordan, most houses have one or more ground or roof tanks. An intermittent supply can be supplemented with other non-piped sources such as packaged drinking and cooking water bought from local shops or delivered to the house.

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Intermittent water supply

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Intermittent water supply claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In engineering, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Intermittent water supply before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Intermittent water supply ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Intermittent water supply

In research: Intermittent water supply appears in engineering research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Intermittent water supply in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Intermittent water supply is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Civil engineering, Environmental engineering, Hydraulic engineering, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Intermittent water supply outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Intermittent water supply in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Intermittent water supply means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Intermittent water supply out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Intermittent water supply in simple terms?

Why does Intermittent water supply matter?

Because it connects several engineering ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Intermittent water supply?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Intermittent water supply.