Managing water pressure for water savings in developing countries

Abstract

Many water utilities, particularly in the developing countries, continue to operate inefficient water distribution systems (WDSs) with a significant amount of water and revenue losses. Various factors, manageable to different extents, contribute to water losses, such as poor infrastructure, high pressures, illegal water use, etc. Whilst the problem of water losses in WDSs is global in scale, solutions need to be tailored to local circumstances due to the various causes of water loss and the mechanisms available to manage them. This paper investigates the potentials of the available pressure management methodologies and their implementation in developing countries, using a case study of a district metering area (DMA) in Kotez-Serbia. The minimal night flow method was applied for assessment of real losses. A particular focus is on assessment of water savings due to reduction of pressures. A total of three methods for estimation of water savings are described and tested against data measured in the DMA under initial and reduced pressures: (i) the method based on Leakage Index (LI) calculations, (ii) the PRESMAC model and (iii) a newly-developed method which is based on the assumption that both leakage and consumption are pressure dependent. The results indicate that the third method leads to the most accurate prediction of the total amount of water savings under reduced pressures, with only 6% difference between measured and estimated volume of saved water.