Water consumption in schools for people with disabilities

Water is a limited natural resource, essential for life. The sustainable management of water resources requires estimates of water consumption in the built environment. The objective of this paper is to determine the water consumption in units of the Associação de Pais e Amigos dos Excepcionais (APAE) in the state of Santa Catarina, Brazil. Twenty-nine units were selected for data analysis. The average per capita consumption ranged from 3.93 liters/student/day to 24.20 liters/student/day. The average consumption per unit varied between 7.10 m³/school/month and 210.63 m³/school/month. The results showed a positive correlation between monthly water consumption and the number of students, number of meals, number of restrooms, number of toilets, built area and age of the building variables. Furthermore, analyses have shown that per capita water consumption decreases as the number of students, the number of toilets and the area of buildings increase. The results of this study can motivate new research related to water consumption and people with disabilities in Brazil.