The Issues and Challenges of Reducing Non-Revenue Water

By Rudolf Frauendorfer and Roland Liemberger

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.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Asian Development Bank
• Release date: Dec 1, 2010
• ISBN: 9789290921936

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The Issues and Challenges of Reducing Non-Revenue Water

Rudolf Frauendorfer

Roland Liemberger

Asian Development Bank

© 2010 Asian Development Bank

All rights reserved. Published 2010.

Printed in the Philippines.

ISBN 978-92-9092-398-5

Publication Stock No. RPT102319

Cataloging-In-Publication Data

Frauendorfer, R. and R. Liemberger.

The issues and challenges of reducing non-revenue water.

Mandaluyong City, Philippines: Asian Development Bank, 2010.

1. Non-revenue water.     I. Asian Development Bank.

The views expressed in this publication are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views and policies of the Asian Development Bank (ADB) or its Board of Governors or the governments they represent.

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Contents

Tables, Figures, and Boxes

Abbreviations

Foreword

Chronic water losses have been the hallmark of urban Asia’s water management over the decades. This may not have mattered much during an era of assumed plenty. But the rapid growth of Asia’s towns and cities, coupled with increased volumes of water for irrigated agriculture, energy, and industry, has meant that there is much less water to go around in the urban centers. The loss of an estimated 29 billion cubic meters of treated water every year, valued conservatively at $9 billion, is no longer something that Asia’s urban water managers can ignore.

Reducing these water losses is critical to efficient resource utilization, efficient utility management, enhanced consumer satisfaction, and postponement of capital-intensive additions to capacity. Wherever active water loss reduction programs have been initiated and sustained, the gains to consumers and utilities alike have been significant. In fact, as Frauendorfer and Liemberger