Reducing water losses in Municipalities: Key issues and pointers to implementation

Saving water and water demand management (WDM) in general can be quite confusing to a municipality wishing to embark on some form of water loss reduction activities. A lot of work has taken place in South African and internationally to support water loss reduction in order to save money.

Aqualite Water balance software

AQUALITE is the first of a new generation of models designed to assist water suppliers in managing their non-revenue water. It is effectively an annual water-audit model based on the latest IWA best practice. It has been developed through close co-operation of numerous internationally recognized water loss managers from several countries and incorporates a host of features, many of which are not available in other water audit models.

Hour-Day

The Hour-Day Factor is simply a factor that can be applied to a reduction (or increase) in the pressure dependent flow occurring at the hour of Minimum Night Flow to provide an indication of the total daily saving (or increase) in pressure dependent flow that can be expected over the whole 24-hour period.

Water Demand Management

This guide concentrates on highlighting the key issues in simple and straightforward terms in an attempt to explain what interventions can be undertaken in order to reduce water losses from municipal water supply networks and how best to implement them.

Benchmarking leakage from water reticulation systems in South Africa 2004

The BENCHLEAK software was developed through the Water Research Commission to provide a simple yet pragmatic approach to the evaluation of leakage from potable water distribution systems. The model is used to assist water utilities to evaluate the levels of leakage and non-revenue water in their water distribution system.

Assessing Non-Revenue Water and its Components: A Practical Approach

IWA Task Forces recently produced an international ‘best practice’ standard approach for Water Balance calculations, with definitions of all terms involved, as the essential first step in practical management of water losses.

The State of Non-Revenue Water in South Africa

The Non-Revenue Water for municipal water use in South Africa is estimated to be 36.8%. While it is clear that there is significant room for improvement, it is also important to recognize that the South African figure is in line with the World average value of 36.6%.