Non-revenue Water (NRW) Reduction Strategy.

This Non-revenue Water Reduction Strategy is a sectoral document aiming at reducing the impact due to the loss of water resources, together with increasing the financial revenue in the sector. Procedural method shall be to discuss with providers who have been successful within the Union of Service Providers to utilize existing knowledge and transfer successful techniques to all service providers.
To achieve the goal, proposed strategies are designed to find the extent, category and location of non revenue water, and then devise prioritized plans which represent the cheapest way to achieve reductions. The process will include the following steps (i) install metering and other works required for effective water accounting; (ii) complete audits and develop national priority lists of target areas; (iii) define NRW by category; (iv) develop national priority action plans, dedicate funding and implement the reduction plans; and (v) ongoing reporting and develop public awareness and education campaigns.
Main actions to be taken are dependent on the non-revenue category (a) accounting/meter reading errors and non-payment of bills can be reduced by (i) setting systems for water accounting; (ii) giving incentives to service provider employees; (iii) payment plans to gradually the debts; (iv) pre-paid water meters; (v) public awareness campaign; and (vi) sanctioning customers constantly in debt; (b) illegal connections can be faced through (i) analysis of water use that might reveal anomalies; and (ii) physical investigations such as visiting properties with no record of connection, or with consistent low use; and (c) technical losses must be tackled with (i) good management practices; (ii) correlation and analysis of data; (iii) development of on-going leakage detection and maintenance plans; and (iv) public information and awareness campaigns. All these interventions should be accompanied by good management practices by service providers, being an effective ongoing campaign to reduce losses. Among these good practices, there are (i) maintenance plans and emergency maintenance plans; (ii) Network Operation management; (iii) asset rehabilitation and capital replacement plans; and (iv) asset maintenance records.
The reduction of the non-revenue water is to be considered a step towards a more sustainable and productive agriculture, increasing the amount of water available to consumers and a more equitable division.
As for the Governance, it regards the successful implementation of the Strategy. It requires a number of steps (1) set up a dedicated PWA Non-Revenue Water Team; (2) set up systems and train the NRW Team; (3) engage the service providers; (4) set up NRW Practitioner Team to give the technical advice and help to the smaller service providers to implement the Strategy.