A local hydrogeologist is proposing the use of well water for sanitary purposes as a sustainable solution to meeting the Island’s demand for water.Mark Rowe made the first of four presentations at the forum entitled “Our Water Supply: How Sustainable Is it?”.The “typical” house, of four occupants, consumes about 120 gallons of water a day, he told the standing room only audience at the Bermuda Underwater Exploration Institute.About 94 of those gallons come from roof-harvested rainwater leaving a water balance deficit of 26 gallons, which would normally mean purchasing ten loads of water in an average year.That deficit is made up by treated water from other sources — private water wells, mains and trucked water, all of which are less sustainable because of their use of fossil fuel for treating and delivery.But Mr Rowe stressed that 45 gallons a day are consumed by flushing toilets in the typical house, while the balance — 75 gallons is required for drinking.“People are flushing good drinking water into the toilet,” Mr Rowe told The Royal Gazette following the forum.“What I am proposing is, for sanitary demand, we use wells. Then we can get all of our other requirements from our rain water supply.”That solution actually creates a water surplus of about 19 gallons of water a day for the typical house.As the water does not have to be treated, the only running costs are for pumping the water into the flushing system.Yesterday, Mr Rowe said that communal wells for the flushing needs of an entire neighbourhood would be even less costly.In an average year, Bermuda’s households get 66 percent of their water from rainfall, 12 percent from the mains, 11 percent trucked in and another 10 percent from the Island’s 3,500 private wells.But getting more wells into the mix would entail several Government Departments working together.“Planning would be critical because they see all the applications,” Mr Rowe said. “Some houses might be able to get some relief on how large their tanks have to be if they put in a well. Somehow they should get the information back that they should put in a well.”Environment and Public Works would also have to get together, he added.“And if it’s not being done, they (Sustainable Development Department) need to step in and bang some heads together and arrange meetings.”Mr Rowe recently retired from the Department of Environmental Protection.Other panellists at Thursday’s forum were Russ Ford, spokesman for the Bermuda Water Trucker’s Association, Allan Rance CEO of Watlington Waterworks and Colin Brown, facility manager of ACE Bermuda Insurance.The panellists agreed that Bermuda does not face a water crisis but careful management of the “liquid gold” is in order.Mr Ford said that the extremities of the Island normally face a more acute problem of water availability.And Mr Rance said the issues were more to do with storage and distribution. “I do not think for a minute that we are in a crisis situation.”Mr Brown, however, noted the need to be more efficient “We have the highest cost of electricity in the world. Are we going that way with water?”