We refer to Mr Chin Kee Thou’s letter, “HDB's eco toilet option runs counter to water-saving efforts” (July 1).

The Home Improvement Programme offers residents improvements within flats and deals with some of the common maintenance issues in older flats.

To provide residents with more choices to suit different lifestyle needs, the Housing and Development Board (HDB) offers both the conventional pedestal and eco-pedestal to residents who opt for toilet upgrading under the Home Improvement Programme.

All water fittings in HDB flats — including the eco-pedestal — help to conserve water and meet the requirements of the Water Efficiency Labelling Scheme by national water agency PUB.

The eco-pedestal integrates a wash basin with the toilet pedestal, allowing water used for handwashing to be redirected to the cistern for the next flush. This way, it helps residents to save water by reusing it for toilet flushing.

The eco-pedestal is not meant to replace the regular hand wash basin, which is also provided as part of toilet upgrading regardless of the type of pedestal chosen. Residents can thus use the regular basin for handwashing if they are not flushing the toilet.

We would also like to assure Mr Chin that the use of soap does not affect the performance of the eco-pedestal system.

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