Water-Loss Management under Data Scarcity: Case Study in a Small Municipality in a Developing Country
Publication: Journal of Water Resources Planning and Management
Volume 146, Issue 3
Abstract
Urban areas are facing challenges for the provision of public services, with water scarcity arising as one of the main problems. A twin track approach of supply and demand management is essential, and water-loss management contributes to reducing water demand. However, small municipalities from developing countries have technical, information, and financial limitations to locate and monitor water losses. This paper presents the estimation of real and apparent losses in a small municipality from a developing country in a data-scarce situation. For this, several tools were used, allowing data integration that resulted in a water balance, from which water losses were estimated at 46%, and four alternatives for water-loss reduction were developed. A cost-benefit analysis and financial indicators were estimated for the proposed alternatives, resulting in a water savings of 19%, a payback period of 3 years and an internal rate of return of 39%. The proposed strategies have potential to improve water quantity and quality, the technical stability of the system, utility performance, and water security.
Get full access to this article
View all available purchase options and get full access to this article.
Data Availability Statement
Data, models, and code generated and used during the study may be available from the corresponding author by request on a case-by-case basis.
Acknowledgments
The authors thank Universidad Industrial de Santander for the support received whilst writing this paper.
References
Aldana, M. J. 2017. “Integral network management: A case study of Bogotá and the empresa de acuerdo, alcantarillado y aseo de Bogotá, EAB ESP.” Procedia Eng. 186: 654–665. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.proeng.2017.03.282.
Al-Washali, T., S. Sharma, and M. Kennedy. 2016. “Methods of assessment of water losses in water supply systems: A review.” Water Resour. Manage. 30 (14): 4985–5001. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11269-016-1503-7.
Alzamora, F. M., H. J. Bartolín Ayala, H. S. Iranzo, and M. A. Prats. 2004. “GISRed V1.0: An assistant tool to build models and develop master planning projects for water distribution systems.” Tecnol. Agua 24 (250): 32–41.
Andersen, A., E. Glattre, and B. V. Johansen. 1993. “Incidence of cancer among lighthouse keepers exposed to asbestos in drinking water.” Am. J. Epidemiol. 138 (9): 682–687. https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordjournals.aje.a116905.
Araral, E., and Y. Wang. 2013. “Water demand management: Review of literature and comparison in South-East Asia.” Int. J. Water Resour. Dev. 29 (3): 434–450. https://doi.org/10.1080/07900627.2013.826413.
Aşchilean, I., G. Badea, I. Giurca, G. S. Naghiu, and F. G. Iloaie. 2017. “Determining priorities concerning water distribution network rehabilitation.” Energy Procedia 112 (Mar): 27–34. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.egypro.2017.03.1055.
Babić, B., A. Dukić, and M. Stanić. 2014. “Managing water pressure for water savings in developing countries.” Water SA 40 (2): 221–232. https://doi.org/10.4314/wsa.v40i2.4.
Bello-Dambatta, A., Z. Kapelan, and D. Butler. 2014. “Impact assessment of household water demand management interventions.” Br. J. Environ. Clim. Change 4 (2): 243–260. https://doi.org/10.9734/BJECC/2014/4533.
Berg, S. 2008. “Water utility performance in Central America: The political economy of coverage, quality and cost.” In Conf. on Universal Service Obligations and Regulatory Regimes: The Latin American Experience. Barcelona, Spain: Center for International Relations and Development Studies.
Blanco, L., and C. Celis. 2017. “Formulación de alternativas para optimizar el funcionamiento técnico del sistema de abastecimiento urbano del municipio de Málaga (Santander), enfatizando en la gestión de pérdidas en la red de distribución.” BEng. thesis, Escuela de Ingeniería Civil, Universidad Industrial de Santander.
Cassa, A. M., J. E. van Zyl, and R. F. Laubscher. 2010. “A numerical investigation into the effect of pressure on holes and cracks in water supply pipes.” Urban Water J. 7 (2): 109–120. https://doi.org/10.1080/15730620903447613.
Cavaliere, A., M. Maggi, and F. Stroffolini. 2017. “Water losses and optimal network investments: Price regulation effects with municipalization and privatization.” Water Resour. Econ. 18 (Apr): 1–19. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.wre.2017.04.001.
Cheung, P. B., G. V. Girol, N. Abe, and M. Propato. 2010. “Night flow analysis and modeling for leakage estimation in a water distribution system.” In Integrating Water Systems: Proc., 10th Int. Conf. on Computing and Control for the Water Industry (CCWI). London: Taylor & Francis.
Correa, F. 2008. “Tasa de descuento ambiental Gamma: Una aplicación para Colombia” [Gamma environmental discount rate: An application for Colombia]. [In Spanish.] Lecturas de Economía 69: 141–162.
Couto, E., M. Calijuri, P. Assemany, A. Santiago, and L. Lopes. 2015. “Greywater treatment in airports using anaerobic filter followed by UV disinfection: An efficient and low cost alternative.” J. Cleaner Prod. 106 (Nov): 372–379. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2014.07.065.
Couvelis, F. A., and J. E. van Zyl. 2015. “Apparent losses due to domestic water meter under-registration in South Africa.” Water SA 41 (5): 698–704. https://doi.org/10.4314/wsa.v41i5.13.
DANE (Departamento Administrativo Nacional de Estadística). 2018. “Variación porcentual IPC 2002–2018.” Accessed July 13, 2018. https://www.dane.gov.co/index.php/estadisticas-por-tema/precios-y-costos/indice-de-precios-al-consumidor-ipc.
DANE (Departamento Administrativo Nacional de Estadística). 2019. “Estratificación socioeconómica para servicios públicos domiciliarios.” Accessed April 4, 2019. https://www.dane.gov.co/index.php/servicios-al-ciudadano/servicios-informacion/estratificacion-socioeconomica.
Darvini, G., and L. Soldini. 2015. “Pressure control for WDS management. A case study.” Procedia Eng. 119: 984–993. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.proeng.2015.08.989.
DNP (Departamento Nacional de Planeación). 2017. “Colombia produce 6 veces menos ingresos por metro cúbico de agua extraída que países de la OCDE.” Accessed March 23, 2017. https://www.dnp.gov.co/Crecimiento-Verde/Paginas/Noticia1.aspx.
Ecocialt SAS. 2014. “Programa de ahorro y uso eficiente del agua.” Accessed March 23, 2017. http://proactivasai.com/areasocial/descargas/ProgramadeAhorroyUsoEficientedelAgua.pdf.
Egenhofer, C., M. Alessi, J. Teusch, and J. Nunez-Ferrer. 2012. Which economic model for a water-efficient Europe? Brussels, Belgium: Centre for European Policy Studies.
Fundación Bolivar. 2004. Plan Maestro de Acueducto y Alcantarillado del municipio de Málaga Santander. Tomo I: Diagnóstico General. Málaga, Colombia: Fundación Bolivar.
Garcia, S., and A. Thomas. 2003. “Regulation of public utilities under asymmetric information: The case of municipal water supply in France.” Environ. Resour. Econ. 26 (1): 145–162. https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1025629503671.
Gomes, R. 2011. “Modelação matemática como ferramenta de gestão e exploração de sistemas de distribuição de água.” Ph.D. thesis, Departamento de Engenharia Civil, Laboratório de Hidráulica, Recursos Hídricos e Ambiente, Universidade de Coimbra.
González-Gómez, F., M. A. García-Rubio, and J. Guardiola. 2011. “Why is non-revenue water so high in so many cities?” Int. J. Water Resour. Dev. 27 (2): 345–360. https://doi.org/10.1080/07900627.2010.548317.
Haider, H., I. Al-Salamah, Y. Ghazaw, R. Abdel Maguid, M. Shafiguzzaman, and A. Ghumman. 2019. “Framework to establish economic level of leakage for intermittent water supplies in arid environments.” J. Water Resour. Plann. Manage. 145 (2): 05018018. https://doi.org/10.1061/(ASCE)WR.1943-5452.0001027.
Harawa, M. M., Z. Hoko, S. Misi, and S. Maliano. 2016. “Investigating the management of unaccounted for water for Lilongwe Water Board, Malawi.” J. Water Sanitation Hyg. for Dev. 6 (3): 362–376. https://doi.org/10.2166/washdev.2016.013.
Hoko, Z., and J. A. Chipwaila. 2017. “Investigating unaccounted for water and its components in Zomba city water supply system, Malawi.” J. Water Sanitation Hyg. for Dev. 7 (3): 495–506. https://doi.org/10.2166/washdev.2017.003.
Jiménez, M. 2003. La sectorización hidráulica como estrategia de control de pérdidas en sistemas de acueducto. Bogotá, Colombia: Bogotá Acueducto Agua y Alcantarillado de Bogotá.
Kanakoudis, V., and K. Gonelas. 2016. “Non-revenue water reduction through pressure management in Kozani’s water distribution network: From theory to practice.” Desalin. Water Treat. 57 (25): 11436–11446. https://doi.org/10.1080/19443994.2015.1049967.
Karadirek, I. E., S. Kara, G. Yilmaz, A. Muhammetoglu, and H. Muhammetoglu. 2012. “Implementation of hydraulic modelling for water-loss reduction through pressure management.” Water Resour. Manage. 26 (9): 2555–2568. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11269-012-0032-2.
Kingdom, B., R. Liemberger, and P. Marin. 2006. “The challenge of reducing non-revenue water (NRW) in developing countries. How the private sector can help: A look at performance-based service contracting.” Accessed April 4, 2019. http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/2006/12/7531078/challenge-reducing-non-revenue-water-nrw-developing-countries-private-sector-can-help-look-performance-based-service-contracting.
Lambert, A. 2002. “International report: Water losses management and techniques.” Water Sci. Technol. Water Supply 2 (4): 1–20. https://doi.org/10.2166/ws.2002.0115.
Lambert, A., B. Charalambous, M. Fantozzi, J. Kovac, A. Rizzo, and S. G. St John. 2014. “14 Years’ experience of using IWA best practice water balance and water loss performance indicators in Europe.” Accessed March 28, 2014. http://fowarim.eu/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/IWA-April-2014-Water-Benchmarking.pdf.
Matos, C., S. Pereira, E. V. Amorim, I. Bentes, and A. Briga-Sá. 2014. “Wastewater and greywater reuse on irrigation in centralized and decentralized systems: An integrated approach on water quality, energy consumption and emissions.” Sci. Total Environ. 493 (Sep): 463–471. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2014.05.129.
Mazzolani, G., L. Berardi, D. Laucelli, A. Simone, R. Martino, and O. Giustolisi. 2017. “Estimating leakages in water distribution networks based only on inlet flow data.” J. Water Resour. Plann. Manage. 143 (6): 04017014. https://doi.org/10.1061/(ASCE)WR.1943-5452.0000758.
McKenzie, R. 1999. Development of a standardised approach to evaluate burst and background losses in water distribution systems in South Africa. South Africa: South African Water Research Commission.
Motiee, H., E. McBean, and A. Motiei. 2007. “Estimating physical unaccounted for water (UFW) in distribution networks using simulation models and GIS.” Urban Water J. 4 (1): 43–52. https://doi.org/10.1080/15730620601145899.
Muthukumaran, S., K. Baskaran, and N. Sexton. 2011. “Quantification of potable water savings by residential water conservation and reuse: A case study.” Resour. Conserv. Recycl. 55 (11): 945–952. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.resconrec.2011.04.013.
Mutikanga, H. E., S. Sharma, and K. Vairavamoorthy. 2009. “Water loss management in developing countries: Challenges and prospects.” J. Am. Water Works Assoc. 101 (12): 57–68. https://doi.org/10.1002/j.1551-8833.2009.tb10010.x.
Mutikanga, H. E., S. K. Sharma, and K. Vairavamoorthy. 2011. “Investigating water meter performance in developing countries: A case study of Kampala, Uganda.” Water SA 37 (4): 567–574.
MVCT (Ministerio de Vivienda, Ciudad y Territorio de Colombia). 2017. Reglamento del sector de agua potable y saneamiento (RAS): Resolución 330 de 2017. Bogotá, Colombia: MVCT.
Ndunguru, M. G., and Z. Hoko. 2016. “Assessment of water loss in Harare, Zimbabwe.” J. Water Sanitation Hyg. Dev. 6 (4): 519–533. https://doi.org/10.2166/washdev.2016.157.
Nicolini, M., and L. Zovatto. 2009. “Optimal location and control of pressure reducing valves in water networks.” J. Water Resour. Plann. Manage. 135 (3): 178–187. https://doi.org/10.1061/(ASCE)0733-9496(2009)135:3(178).
Oviedo-Ocaña, E. R., I. Dominguez, S. Ward, M. L. Rivera-Sanchez, and J. M. Zaraza-Peña. 2018. “Financial feasibility of end-user designed rainwater harvesting and greywater reuse systems for high water use households.” Environ. Sci. Pollut. Res. 25 (20): 19200–19216. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-017-8710-5.
Pérez-Urdiales, M., M. A. García-Valiñas, and R. Martínez-Espiñeira. 2016. “Responses to changes in domestic water tariff structures: A latent class analysis on household-level data from Granada, Spain.” Environ. Resour. Econ. 63 (1): 167–191. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10640-014-9846-0.
Puust, R., Z. Kapelan, D. A. Savic, and T. Koppel. 2010. “A review of methods for leakage management in pipe networks.” Urban Water J. 7 (1): 25–45. https://doi.org/10.1080/15730621003610878.
Rossman, L. 2000. EPANET 2 users manual, 29–90. Cincinnati, OH: National Risk Management Research Laboratory, Office of Research and Development, USEPA.
Saldarriaga, J., and D. Salas. 2003. Agua 2003: Usos Múltiples del Agua, para la Vida y el Desarrollo Sostenible. Cali, Colombia: Universidad del Valle, CINARA, International Water Association.
Samir, N., R. Kansoh, W. Elbarki, and A. Fleifle. 2017. “Pressure control for minimizing leakage in water distribution systems.” Alexandria Eng. J. 56 (4): 601–612. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.aej.2017.07.008.
Sankar, G. S., S. Mohan Kumar, S. Narasimhan, S. Narasimhan, and S. Murty Bhallamudi. 2015. “Optimal control of water distribution networks with storage facilities.” J. Process Control 32 (Aug): 127–137. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jprocont.2015.04.007.
Sewilam, H., and K. Rudolph. 2011. Capacity development for drinking water loss reduction: Challenges and experiences. Bonn, Germany: United Nations Univ.
Sharma, S. K., and K. Vairavamoorthy. 2009. “Urban water demand management: Prospects and challenges for the developing countries.” Water Environ. J. 23 (3): 210–218. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1747-6593.2008.00134.x.
Tabesh, M., A. H. Asadiyami Yekta, and R. Burrows. 2009. “An integrated model to evaluate losses in water distribution systems.” Water Resour. Manage. 23 (3): 477–492. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11269-008-9284-2.
Thornton, J. 2003. “Managing leakage by managing pressure.” Water 21, 43–44. London: International Water Association.
Thornton, J., and A. Lambert. 2005. “Progress in practical prediction of pressure: Leakage, pressure: Burst frequency and pressure: Consumption relationships.” In Proc., IWA Special Conf. Leakage 05. London: International Water Association.
Tlili, Y., and A. Nafi. 2012. “A practical decision scheme for the prioritization of water pipe replacement.” Water Sci. Technol. Water Supply 12 (6): 895–917. https://doi.org/10.2166/ws.2012.068.
T&MO Ltda. 2012. Informe de interventoría No. 6. Optimización y modernización de las redes hidráulicas de distribución en el casco urbano del municipio de Málaga-Santander Etapa 1. Málaga, Colombia: T&MO Ltda.
UN General Assembly. 2015. “Transforming our world: The 2030 Agenda for sustainable development.” Accessed March 21, 2017. http://www.un.org/ga/search/view_doc.asp?symbol=A/RES/70/1&Lang=E.
van den Berg, C. 2015. “Drivers of non-revenue water: A cross-national analysis.” Util. Policy 36 (Oct): 71–78. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jup.2015.07.005.
Vicente, D. J., L. Garrote, R. Sánchez, and D. Santillán. 2016. “Pressure management in water distribution systems: Current status, proposals, and future trends.” J. Water Resour. Plann. Manage. 142 (2): 04015061. https://doi.org/10.1061/(ASCE)WR.1943-5452.0000589.
Wang, D., and D. R. Cullimore. 2010. “Bacteriological challenges to asbestos cement water distribution pipelines.” J. Environ. Sci. 22 (8): 1203–1208. https://doi.org/10.1016/S1001-0742(09)60239-4.
WWAP (World Water Assessment Programme). 2017. Informe Mundial de las Naciones Unidas sobre el Desarrollo de los Recursos Hídricos 2017. Aguas residuales: El recurso desaprovechado. París: UNESCO.
Wyatt, A. 2010. Non-revenue water: Financial model for optimal management in developing countries. Research Triangle Park, NC: Research Triangle Institute.
Wyatt, A. 2018. Case study: Performance-based contract for NRW reduction and control New Providence, Bahamas. Washington, DC: Inter-American Development Bank.
Xu, Q., R. Liu, Q. Chen, and R. Li. 2014. “Review on water leakage control in distribution networks and the associated environmental benefits.” J. Environ. Sci. (China) 26 (5): 955–961. https://doi.org/10.1016/S1001-0742(13)60569-0.
Information & Authors
Information
Published In
Journal of Water Resources Planning and Management
Volume 146 • Issue 3 • March 2020
Copyright
©2020 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Dec 10, 2018
Accepted: Jul 11, 2019
Published online: Jan 13, 2020
Published in print: Mar 1, 2020
Discussion open until: Jun 13, 2020
Authors
Metrics & Citations
Metrics
Citations
Download citation
If you have the appropriate software installed, you can download article citation data to the citation manager of your choice. Simply select your manager software from the list below and click Download.