NWC reports reduction in water loss to leakage
Published:Sunday | December 30, 2018 | 12:00 AMPaul Clarke/Gleaner Writer
The five-year-long US$42.5 million Kingston and St Andrew Non-Revenue Water (NRW) Reduction Programme is bearing fruit, according to president of the National Water Commission (NWC), Mark Barnett.
Non-revenue water levels in Kingston and St Andrew have declined from 1,040 litres per connection per day, or 60 per cent of production in August 2016 to 801 litres per connection per day, or about 49 per cent of production as at the end of November 2018.
"This is a significant 23 per cent reduction from the initial point calculated in litres per connection per day," Barnett said.
Barnett, who hosted members of the media at a press conference at the NWC's corporate offices in Kingston last week, said the decline was significant and, based on trajectory, further improvement is envisaged.
The programme is being financed through an Inter-American Development Bank loan and includes network audits and survey of 61 socially challenged areas and the regularisation of individuals.
Non-revenue water is water that has been produced and is lost before it reaches the customer. Losses can be real losses or apparent losses. High levels of NRW are detrimental to the financial viability of water utilities such as the NWC, as well as to the quality of the water itself.
It also involves the use of specialised equipment, material and work methods; the installation of more than 48,000 state-of-the-art customer meters, and more than 300 persons getting specialised NRW training.
In addition, Barnett said that more than 3,000 kilometres distance of pipelines have been walked, checked, mapped and rechecked, as part of the programme, along with the installation of 1,300 new valves, and 800 more are to be installed.
While apologising for disruptions in service, Barnett said the NWC is working as fast as possible to return regular service to affected customers, pointing out that over the next five months there will be a continued level of high-visibility activity under the programme.
"We are doing all we can to get the work done in as quick a time as possible, but in the meantime, the public will also see our teams out there working on assuring them of quality service and product," said Barnett.
Approximately 45 million cubic metres of water is lost daily in developing countries, with an economic value of more than US$3 billion per year.
A World Bank study puts the global estimate of physical water losses at 32 billion cubic metres each year, half of which occurs in developing countries such as Jamaica.
Water utilities suffer from the huge financial costs of treating and pumping water, only to see it leak back into the ground and the lost revenues from water that could have otherwise been sold.
If the water losses in developing countries could be halved, the saved water would be enough to supply around 90 million people, according to the World Bank study.