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Smart and Sustainable Built Environment

ISSN : 2046-6099

Article publication date: 28 September 2021

Issue publication date: 2 January 2023

Sustainability involves ensuring that sufficient resources are available for current and future generations. Non-revenue water (NRW) creates a barrier to sustainability through energy and water loss. However, a comprehensive overview of NRW reduction strategies is lacking. This study reviews the existing literature to identify available strategies for reducing NRW and its components and discusses their merits.

Design/methodology/approach

A systematic literature review was conducted to identify and analyze different strategies for reducing NRW. The initial search identified 158 articles, with 41 of these deemed suitably relevant following further examination. Finally, 14 NRW reduction strategies were identified from the selected articles.

The identified NRW reduction strategies were grouped into strategies for reducing (1) apparent losses (AL), (2) real losses (RL) and (3) water losses, with the latter involving the combination of AL and RL. The strategies adopted most frequently are “prevent water leakage” and “control water pressure.” In addition, water distribution network (WDN) rehabilitation has additional benefits over other RL reduction strategies, including saving water and energy, increasing hydraulic performance and enhancing reliability. Finally, utilizing decision support systems is the only strategy capable of reducing multiple NRW categories.

Originality/value

This review provides insights into the overall NRW problem and the strategies best equipped to address it. Authorities can use these findings to develop case-specific NRW reduction action plans that save water and energy, while providing other economic benefits. In addition, NRW reduction can improve WDN reliability.

• Sustainable development
• Systematic review
• Apparent losses (AL)
• Non-revenue water (NRW)

Acknowledgements

This work is supported by the Universiti Malaysia Pahang Postgraduate Research Scheme [PGRS200382]. The authors would like to thank the editors and anonymous reviewers whose invaluable comments and suggestions substantially improved the paper.

Farouk, A.M. , Rahman, R.A. and Romali, N.S. (2023), "Non-revenue water reduction strategies: a systematic review", Smart and Sustainable Built Environment , Vol. 12 No. 1, pp. 181-199. https://doi.org/10.1108/SASBE-04-2021-0071

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Non-revenue water reduction strategies: a systematic review

PurposeSustainability involves ensuring that sufficient resources are available for current and future generations. Non-revenue water (NRW) creates a barrier to sustainability through energy and water loss. However, a comprehensive overview of NRW reduction strategies is lacking. This study reviews the existing literature to identify available strategies for reducing NRW and its components and discusses their merits.Design/methodology/approachA systematic literature review was conducted to identify and analyze different strategies for reducing NRW. The initial search identified 158 articles, with 41 of these deemed suitably relevant following further examination. Finally, 14 NRW reduction strategies were identified from the selected articles.FindingsThe identified NRW reduction strategies were grouped into strategies for reducing (1) apparent losses (AL), (2) real losses (RL) and (3) water losses, with the latter involving the combination of AL and RL. The strategies adopted most frequently are “prevent water leakage” and “control water pressure.” In addition, water distribution network (WDN) rehabilitation has additional benefits over other RL reduction strategies, including saving water and energy, increasing hydraulic performance and enhancing reliability. Finally, utilizing decision support systems is the only strategy capable of reducing multiple NRW categories.Originality/valueThis review provides insights into the overall NRW problem and the strategies best equipped to address it. Authorities can use these findings to develop case-specific NRW reduction action plans that save water and energy, while providing other economic benefits. In addition, NRW reduction can improve WDN reliability.

• Related Documents

FLUCTUATION OF WATER PRESSURE AND ITS IMPACT ON WATER LOSSES IN WATER DISTRIBUTION NETWORK

Optimizing water age and pressure in drinking water distribution networks.

Water distribution networks suffer from high levels of water losses due to leaks and breaks, mainly due to high operating pressure. One of the most well-known methods to reduce water losses is pressure management. However, when the operating pressure in a water distribution network reduces, the time the water stays within the network (called water age) increases. Increased water age means deteriorated water quality. In this paper, water pressure in relation to water age is addressed in a water distribution network in Greece. Using simulation and optimization tools, the optimum solution is found to reduce water age and operating pressure at the same time. In addition, District Metered Areas are formed and water age is optimized.

DETERMINANTS OF NON-REVENUE WATER

Water is one of the most essential needs in human daily life. Water losses or Non-Revenue Water (NRW) refers to the treated water that has been produced from water plant which did not reach to the customer. This waste of water has caused the company to suffer losses and hence, burdens the people with increasing water tariff. Moreover, it becomes one of the challenges for commercial water system management because the water company must fulfil the demand from the society which keep increasing day by day. In addition, the demand for water is increasing, as the population is growing. Despite having the rainfall throughout the year in Malaysia, many cities are experiencing water shortage and frequent water supply disruptions. Therefore, efficient management of water distribution is required to minimise the water losses and to make sure the sustainability of water reserve for a long period. This study focuses on identifying the significant factors that influence the Non-Revenue Water and modelling the data using Multiple Linear Regression Model. The sample size used in this study were 212 observations and the variables involved were Length of Connection, Number of Connection, Production Quantity, Consumption Quantity and Non-Revenue Water. It is found that the variables of Number of Connection, Consumption Quantity and Production Quantity were significant to Non-Revenue Water whereas the variable of Length of Connection was not significant. It is hoped that the result from this study can be used by the water authority company in improving the water distribution and thus reduce water losses and cost.

Energy and Cost Savings through Pumping Stations Rehabilitation. Case Study in Bucharest

This paper presents the results recorded by upgrading and rehabilitating the pumping stations for an urban water network with a primary goal of diminishing the operation and maintenance costs and a secondary goal of reducing the water losses in the water distribution network. The adopted technical solutions within the structural and functional modifications of the pumping stations have led to both the improvement of hydraulic parameters of the pumping stations and also the improvement of registered energy consumption. The undertaken modifications and transformations within the pumping stations led to significant energy savings and at the same time to important water losses reductions within the distribution network.

Reaching economic leakage level through pressure management

High non-revenue water (NRW) values as a percentage of system input volume form a serious problem that many water utilities worldwide have to confront nowadays. There are ways to mitigate the effect by adopting strategies with short- and long-term results. Water pressure management (PM) is one of the most efficient and effective NRW reduction strategies. To calculate pressure management of economic level of leakage (ELL), several steps have to be taken, such as full water costing, calculation of economic benefits and losses of PM interventions and definition of the related investment's break-even point. In this paper, the results of these three procedures required to define the ELL level are analyzed, in order to present the way they are linked together. The water distribution system of Kozani city (in Northern Greece) is used as the case study network. The results of both the net present values PM implementation results and the investment's break-even estimation are analyzed.

Optimizing the Formation of DMAs in a Water Distribution Network through Advanced Modelling

Water pressure management in a water distribution network (WDN) is a key component applied to achieve desirable water quality as well as a trouble-free operation of the network. This paper presents a hybrid, two-stage approach, to provide optimal separation of a WDN into District Metered Areas (DMAs), improving both water age and pressure. The first stage aims to divide the WDN into smaller areas via the Geometric Partitioning method, which is based on Recursive Coordinate Bisection (RCB). Subsequently, the Student’s t-mixture model (SMM) is applied to each area, providing an optimal placement of isolation valves and separating the network in DMAs. The model is evaluated on a realistic network generated through Watergems and is compared against one variation of it implemented, including the Gaussian Mixture Model (GMM) as well as the Genetic Algorithm (GA) approach, obtaining impressive performance. The implementation of both stages was deployed in a MATLAB environment through the Epanet toolkit. The proposed system is very promising, especially for large size WDNs due to the decreased running time and noteworthy reduction of pressure and water age.

Effort in reducing unaccountable water and economic consideration

In 2007, Maynilad Water Services, Inc. (Maynilad), the private water and wastewater service provider of the West Zone of Metro-Manila (Philippines), had an enormous challenge ahead: to achieve 100% service coverage in the coming few years with basically no additional water resources; to connect an additional 3 million people still without access to piped water; and to improve the service level to the existing customers. The only way to meet this demand is to reduce water losses from its deteriorated pipe network. Water balance made in that year showed significant total non-revenue water of 1,500 million liters per day which is equivalent to 66% of the total system input volume. Maynilad recognized that to be financially viable, it needs to address the non-revenue water problem. Thus, the Central NRW team was immediately created in 2008 and was tasked to lead Maynilad's ambitious NRW reduction and management program, which is considered one of the largest NRW projects in the world in terms of amount of water losses and the scope and magnitude of works involved to bring down the high level of NRW. Maynilad's NRW program involves breaking up the whole network into hydraulically isolated and measurable district metered areas (DMA); monitoring and diagnosing each DMA; developing well-trained and fully equipped leak detection teams to find surfacing and non-surfacing leaks; active leakage control; pressure management; selective pipe replacement/rehabilitation; closing of illegal connections and decommissioning of old distribution pipes; integrated meter management; and a sustained capacity building of NRW teams. By the end of 2013, 6 years after implementing the NRW program, Maynilad was able to recover more than 700 MLD and managed to bring down the NRW level to 39%. The water that was saved in turn was used to supply additional 400,000 new customers in the expansion areas and generally improved the level of service of the existing customers by providing higher water pressure and longer water availability. These translated to an increase in billed volume by 56 and 107% increase in total revenues for the company.

Research Progress on Water-Using System Integration Methods

This paper introduces the research content, methods and progress of integrating the water distribution network, and has done a comprehensive overview from basic concepts to several typical methods for designing water-using networks such as water pinch analysis, mathematical programming, internal water main technique and experience-based design methodology. It has an advance view of the future developments direction as well.

Pressure Management of Water Distribution Networks Based on Minimum Ground Elevation Difference of DMAs

Water network partitioning (WNP) represents an efficient strategy to improve management of water distribution networks, reduce water losses and monitor water quality. It consists in physically dividing of a water distribution network (WDN) into districted metered areas (DMAs) through the placement of flow meters and isolation valves on boundary pipes between DMAs. In this paper, a novel methodology for designing DMAs is proposed that provides districts with quite similar node elevations and minimizes the number of boundary pipes in order to simplify pressure management and reduce the number of devices to place into the network.

Speed and Pressure Controls of Pumps-as-Turbines Installed in Branch of Water-Distribution Network Subjected to Highly Variable Flow Rates

The use of Pumps-as-Turbines (PaTs) to replace hydraulic turbines as energy-recovery units in industrial and civil applications is widening the penetration of hydropower in small-scale plants. PaTs show advantages in terms of installation costs and the availability of solutions. Water Distribution Networks (WDNs) represent a potential application where PaTs can be installed to recover water-pressure energy. In this work, a MATLAB©–Simulink model of a WDN branch located in South-Tyrol (Italy) was developed. The flow rate of the WDN was assessed though a measurement campaign showing high daily variability, which negatively affect PaT performance. To let the machine operate close to the Best Efficiency Point (BEP), four different operating strategies were studied to meet the constraint of a fixed pressure equal to 4 bar downstream the WDN branch, required to supply water to users. A PaT speed control strategy was implemented, granting better exploitation of flow rates even in the presence of high daily fluctuations. Energy recovery was 23% higher than that of the reference thanks to an advanced strategy based on controlling PaT rotational speed when the flow rate is smaller than that of the design, and operating in off-design conditions when flow rate is higher than that of the BEP.

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The Issues and Challenges of Reducing Non-Revenue Water

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This publication provides an introduction to water utilities and reducing water losses in Asia, highlights the complexity of managing non-revenue water (NRW), offers guidance on NRW assessment, and recommends performance indicators.

• http://hdl.handle.net/11540/1003

Improving the efficiency of water utilities and reducing water losses are becoming top priorities in Asia, with its often-limited water resources and rapidly increasing urban population. This publication provides an up-to-date introduction to the subject matter, highlights the complexity of managing non-revenue water (NRW), offers guidance on NRW assessment, and recommends appropriate performance indicators. It is, to a large extent, based on the work of the Water Loss Specialist Group of the International Water Association in the last decade, and is amply complemented by the authors' practical experiences in Asia and in other countries around the world.

• Introduction
• Non-Revenue Water: Definition, Terminology and Approach
• Non-Revenue Water Estimates for Asia
• Non-Revenue Water Impact on Water Utility Efficiency
• Non-Revenue Water Impact on Customers
• Non-Revenue Water and the Urban Poor
• The Importance of Establishing a Water Balance
• What You Should Know about Physical Losses
• What You Should Know about Leakage Reduction
• What You Should Know about Commercial Losses
• The Need for Appropriate Performance Indicators
• Addressing Community Behavior
• Outsourcing of Non-Revenue Water Management Activities
• Annex 1: Water Balance Definitions
• Annex 2: List of Key Publications

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• Curbing Asia's Nonrevenue Water
• ADB funds and products
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Taking stock of trends and status of non-revenue water level and management for the City of Mutare, Zimbabwe

• Original Article
• Published: 24 February 2024
• Volume 10 , article number  57 , ( 2024 )

Cite this article

• Zvikomborero Hoko 1 ,
• Clarence Farai Mapenzauswa   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0001-6849-1684 1 ,
• Alexander Mhizha 1 ,
• Webster Gumindoga 1 &
• Maxwell Kerith 2  

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Globally, non-revenue water (NRW) is one of the greatest challenges affecting water service providers, especially in developing countries where it is generally above 50%. This is the case for the City of Mutare (Zimbabwe). This study assessed NRW trends for Mutare based on the Standard International Water Association Water Balance (SIWAWB) and the Modified International Water Association Water Balance (MIWAWB) methods. The MIWAWB method unlike the SIWAWB method incorporates revenue collection efficiency. Additionally, the study assessed the status of the city’s NRW management arrangements. Data were collected from the council records and supplemented by questionnaires, interviews, and documentation review. The study found that the NRW level determined by the MIWAWB was higher (26.9 × 10 6  m 3 /year; 79.9% and 2244 L/connection/day) compared to the SIWAWB method (20.5 × 10 6  m 3 /year; 60.6% and 1713 L/connection/day). It was established that the overall current NRW management arrangements regarding apparent losses, real losses, unbilled authorized consumption and billed but not paid for water are poor leading to the high level of NRW. The City of Mutare should review arrangements for NRW and adopt the MIWAWB method to determine the level of NRW as it reflects the true NRW for the city. Also, the City of Mutare should consider having a NRW unit under the Engineering and Technical Services Department which specifically focuses on effective NRW management. The NRW unit should, thus, be capacitated in terms of skills, financing, and appropriate tools or equipment.

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Acknowledgements

This paper is partly intended to inform specific focus areas of a Master of Philosophy (MPhil.) study by Clarence Farai Mapenzauswa at the University of Zimbabwe (Department of Construction and Civil Engineering) under the supervision team of Eng. Zvikomborero Hoko, Dr. Alexander Mhizha and Dr. Webster Gumindoga. The authors are grateful to the City of Mutare for allowing the study and for assistance in data collection. Special mention goes to Eng. Mercy Ncube and Mr. William Madzivadondo of City of Mutare.

This study was not funded.

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All authors contributed to the study conception and design. Material preparation, data collection and analysis were performed by CFM and ZH. MK coordinated data collection in M. The paper outline was prepared by ZH and the first draft of the manuscript was prepared by CFM and ZH. All authors then provided inputs and comments and guidance including in areas of their strength. All authors reviewed and approved the final manuscript.

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Hoko, Z., Mapenzauswa, C.F., Mhizha, A. et al. Taking stock of trends and status of non-revenue water level and management for the City of Mutare, Zimbabwe. Sustain. Water Resour. Manag. 10 , 57 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40899-024-01030-5

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DOI : https://doi.org/10.1007/s40899-024-01030-5

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The Drivers of Non-Revenue Water: How Effective are Non-Revenue Water Reduction Programs?

World Bank Policy Research Working Paper No. 6997

27 Pages Posted: 20 Apr 2016

Caroline van den Berg

World Bank - Energy and Water Department

Date Written: August 1, 2014

To many, reducing water losses is seen as key to more sustainable water management. The arguments to reduce water losses are compelling, but reducing water losses has turned out to be challenging. This paper applies a panel data analysis with fixed effects to determine the major drivers of non-revenue water, which is define as the volume of water losses per kilometer of network per day. The analysis uses data from the International Benchmarking Network for Water and Sanitation Utilities, covering utilities in 68 countries between 2006 and 2011. The analysis finds that non-revenue water is driven by many factors. Some of the most important drivers are beyond the control of the utility, such as population density per kilometer of network, the type of distribution network, and the length of the network, which are largely the result of urbanization and settlement patterns in the localities that the utility serves. The opportunity costs of water losses are also key in explaining what drives non-revenue water. The paper finds that very low opportunity costs of water losses have an adverse effect on the reduction of non-revenue water. Country fixed effects turn out to be important, meaning that the environment in which the utility operates has an important impact on non-revenue water levels. An important conclusion is that the design of non-revenue water reduction programs should study the main drivers of non-revenue water to provide utility managers with a better understanding of what can be achieved in terms of non-revenue water reduction and whether the benefits of these reductions exceed their costs.

Keywords: Town Water Supply and Sanitation, De Facto Governments, Water Utility Services to the Poor, Public Sector Administrative and Civil Service Reform, Water and Human Health, Water Supply and Sanitation Economics, Organizational Management, Policy Formulation and Assessment (superceded), Water Economics, Water Rights, Small Private Water Supply Providers, Public Sector Administrative & Civil Service Reform, Democratic Government, Public Sector Regulation

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