Pressure Reduction for Water Loss Management: A Statistical Evaluation of Water Consumption Considering Customer Storage Tanks

Population growth, increased consumption, and climate change are impacting water production, and water shortage is already a reality in many countries. In addition, a portion of the water produced is lost throughout distribution. Pressure reduction can reduce losses, the frequency of bursts, and water consumption. Consumption reduction is generally considered beneficial to improve water availability, but it is rarely quantified. This work introduces a methodology that applies a statistical paired $t\text{-}\text{test}$ to consumption data to evaluate the reduction. We applied it to eight district metering areas (DMAs) in the municipality of Palmas, Brazil. Four DMAs had the pressure reduced, while four did not. Two years of consumption data and 8,973 connections were used altogether. As a result, three of four DMAs showed a statistically significant consumption reduction after 1 year of pressure reduction. Among the DMAs where pressure remained unchanged, none showed a consumption reduction. We estimated a consumption reduction of $\mathrm{24,500}{\mathrm{m}}^3$ for three sectors for the first year after pressure reduction.