Quality of water to be used for construction has been classically defined in IS 456. It is at par with the quality of drinking water for all practical purposes and for all important parameters. With exponential growth of industrial, infrastructural and commercial sectors all around the world, the need for water to create or construct those facilities ends up in a few trillion cubic meters.
Key Questions:
- Is the planet earth rich in this commodity?
- Do we have enough stock of that quality of water for construction which can support the rate at which different sectors are growing for a few more decades?
- Are we serious about the optimum consumption pattern of water for construction activities?
The list of such questions can be long.
An effort is made in this paper to address the current scenario of water for construction – a futuristic view!
Water Requirement for Concrete Production
Concrete which is manufactured in the whole world in one year is about 3 billion tones as per available data. Additionally water used for construction of elements other than concrete adds to the water consumed for manufacturing concrete.
A simple equation for deriving at quantity of water of drinkable quality is placed below.
Annual Concrete Production:
– 3 billion metric tons (MT)
– Density of concrete: 2.4 MT/m³
– Concrete volume: 1.25 billion m³/year
Cement Consumption:
– Cement required: 0.4 MT per m³ of concrete
– Total cement: 0.5 billion m³/year
Water Requirement:
– Water-cement ratio: 0.45
– Water needed: 0.225 billion m³/year
– This equals 225 billion liters/year
It may be noted that all this quantum of water has to be of drinkable quality. It is also to be noted that this requirement will increase with passage of every year.
The challenge begins here.
Challenges with Drinkable Water Sources
Source of drinkable water is either rain water or river water or borewell water because all of them are natural sources of water. They ideally match all the permissible parameters of drinkable quality of water.
However it is rather unfortunate to have our misfortune that the majority of water from rivers or bore-wells has no-more drinkable quality. Mixing up of chemical effluent, increased differential pressure (force) with which sea water pierces through river water at the meeting point (if river with sea); are few of many reasons for significant deterioration in quality of river water from drinkability perspective. Subsoil contamination, chemical ingress and salinity percolation to subsoil; are few of many reasons due to which bore-well water quality has been alarmingly deteriorated. All these actions lead to increasing scarcity of availability of that quality of water which is defined by all standards in the world for construction activities.
Impact of Substandard Water on Concrete
Matter is serious and its aggressiveness is continuously increasing in leaps and bounds. Means to overcome this monstrous challenge seem pale and fragile for miles down the line. These words can be better explained by those happenings which occur when construction takes place with substandard quality of water. The first significant and visual effect of this is reinforcement corrosion. This phenomenon is nothing less than the beginning of the end. Substandard quality of water slows the impurities to react with concrete matrix and deteriorates the integrity / homogeneity of concrete matrix which gives an easy access for it to comfortably fail and collapse. Common diseases caused by substandard water to concrete are carbonation, chloride attack, heterogeneity which ultimately lead to chaos and invite fatality too.
The Need for Innovative Solutions
Indeed a time has matured to take a call by eminent Civil Engineers with research minded approach and those who have patriotism in their professionalism to effectively search for the appropriate solution to this heartburning matter. As researches have happened since the last couple of decades in the Civil Engineering field, optional materials to fine aggregates and cement additives are emerging (though yet to be time tested) but a solution to depletion of standard quality of water for construction activities is still not seen.
Exploring Alternatives for Water Quality with ‘CONCARE B 14’
Can we find out some means and methods with which we can also carry out all construction activities even with substandard water like salty water / saline water / bore well water or even sea water? If we wait till the process of manually contaminating the sources water is controlled and eliminated, the generations will have to undergo that process but if we come up with some method by which contaminated water itself can be used for construction activities by its effortless and simple treatment, it would be the best service to the Civil Engineering or construction industry.
The author of this paper Er. Chirag K Baxi had an opportunity, vigor, passion and zeal to work in this direction and a product matrix could be invented which can be mixed with salty or saline or bore-well or hard water (everything except biologically contaminated water) and then that water can be successfully used for all construction activities without deterioration of and if it’s parameters affecting functional life of that structure. It is a time tested product and quite a versatile one. It is a patented product and it’s name is ‘CONCARE B 14’.
The Responsibility of Civil Engineers
Preserving and retaining standard quality of water for construction activities is a duty of all human beings and is the responsibility of all Civil Engineers with deduction and loyalty to Mother Nature and our future generation.
About the author;
Er. Chirag K. Baxi is the Director of Prudent Forensic Consultancy Private Limited and General Manager of K K Retroflex Solutions. He specializes in Corrosion Control Measures for concrete and steel surfaces, Damage assessment with the FORENSIC ENGINEERING approach and Structural rehabilitation of concrete and steel structures in the Industrial environment. He holds a degree in BE (Civil Engineering) and has completed MBA (Construction Management).
The author has invented CONCARE B 14 (which has been granted a patent) that makes concrete structures sustainable even with salty, saline, untreated or even seawater without deterioration in any of the end properties of constructed elements. He has written (two) drafts of IS Codes on the topic of “Carbon brick lining” and “PolyPropylene Glass lining” which are under the final stage of approval at BIS.
About 40 Technical papers on National and International platforms are authored, published and presented by the author. He has been recognized by several Institutes for his significant contribution to the Civil Engineering Industry.
