SINGAPORE — From next month, consumers can only buy water-efficient washing machines from stores.

The island’s most water-inefficient washing machines — those with zero ticks under the Government’s Mandatory Water Efficiency Labelling Scheme (MWELS) — will be pulled off the shelves in a move to conserve water.

The scheme assigns a number of ticks according to how water a machine saves. A one-tick washing machine can save 81 litres with every 7kg wash, a two-tick and three-tick washing machine can conserve up to 102 and 112 litres of water respectively.

Moving ahead, PUB intends to raise the minimum requirement for washing machines to two ticks by next year.

PUB said domestic water demand is as high as 180 gallons daily, with laundry washing considered the third most water-consuming activity. This latest move is part of its efforts to encourage the use of more water-efficient household water appliances.

Sales of three-tick washing machines have picked up by 17 per cent, from 55,174 in 2011 to 79,309 last year. Market penetration rose from 37 per cent to 54 per cent between October 2011 and September 2013.

“It helps us to save water and save money,” said Ms Elsa, an owner of a three-tick washing machine. “In addition, we also reuse the rinse water to flush toilet.”