Model Terms of Reference: Implementing Zonal Management Approach to Urban Water Supplies

Abstract

Some 700 million people in the Asia and Pacific region still lacks access to improved water supply. People who are not connected often spend 15% of their household income for water. They buy their water from neighbours at inflated costs, or get it from standpipes or stand-posts, where access to water is only available for short durations. The core issue is getting connected to piped water promptly and on affordable terms, especially for the poor. Once connected, people are likely to pay only 1–2% of their household income for piped water. Unfortunately, it is not so easy to improve operational performance of the whole distribution network. A possible solution would be to sub-divide the network into smaller, more manageable hydraulically isolated zones. This would enable operators to focus resources and efforts within each zone, thereby increasing the chances of improved performance, reduced levels of NRW, increased water conservation through effective consumer revenue metering, and more. The savings resulting from these service efficiencies could be directed to adjacent zones and the process progressively repeated until the whole network has been covered and overall performance improved. This is the “zonal approach” to urban water supplies.