Curbing Asia's Nonrevenue Water

Abstract

Utilities in Asia particularly have every reason to worry about water losses— they lose up to 65% of their production daily, with most utilities averaging a 30% loss. This bane of every water utility’s existence is called nonrevenue water. And water loss is literally money down the drain. Governments and utilities mistakenly try to cover the losses by increasing production, developing new freshwater sources, building treatment plants, and even constructing dams. None of these investments solve the problem—they just make the problem worse by feeding more water into a wasteful system. Those investments could have been put to better use rehabilitating the faulty piped system constructing new systems, or addressing inadequate maintenance, metering or collection processes.