Project title
Water Demand Management in 62 urban centres (Project P1‐10)
Project sponsors
The Department of Water Affairs
Participating countries
South Africa
Objectives
The objectives of this project are to reduce the demand of water users by reducing
water losses and non‐revenue water [NRW], achieve greater water use efficiency,
increased water re‐use and use of appropriate metering, monitoring and data
analysis methods to document volumes delivered/provided and used.
Project description
The demand for water is continuously rising as a result of growth in population,
industry, commerce, agriculture and in some tourism activities. These increased uses,
along with the requirement to protect the environmental, are an integral part of the
ongoing social and economic development scenarios occurring throughout South
Africa. Despite past actions and ongoing programmes, it is difficult to continuously
create sufficient surface water storage capacity at reasonable costs. The traditional
sources of fresh water, which have been rivers, streams, to a limited extent ground
water and reservoirs, are not going to be adequate to satisfy growing demands in
future. WCWDM has been identified as the priority action to cater for the continued
growth in water demand. As in the rest of the world, there has been a nationwide
increase in the level of NRW, partly due to water losses because of the ageing
infrastructure, such as municipal water reticulation networks, apparent losses such
as illegal connections, meter errors and unbilled consumption by the non‐metering
and billing of legitimate consumers. A concerted effort in several of the major South
African metros led to an improvement of the water reticulation networks and an
increase in delivery efficiency. The reticulation networks in South Africa dates back
more than 50 years, and most urban network pipes have exceeded their planned
economic life. This unfortunately results in frequent water leaks due to burst pipes.
Expected results
The resultant water savings can be used to supply new consumers. The management
of the water situation in South Africa can be improved by applying water demand
management (WDM) principles in major metros and municipalities. Activities such as
pipe leakage repair, pressure reduction, reuse of water and metering with
commensurate data analysis can be introduced with good results, and resultant
benefits to the communities being serviced. By minimising losses and wastage, the
need to construct additional infrastructure, usually at higher capital cost, can be
delayed.
Ongoing related activities in the A study by the South African Water Research Commission some years ago estimated
region
the total physical water losses for some 62 urban systems analysed by the study to be
in the order of 31% of the total water supplied. Adding unbilled consumption, the
study estimated NRW for the 62 systems at around 36% of the water supplied. The
results from the study have been quoted extensively and are considered one of the
most reliable sources of quantifying water losses in South Africa. South Africa’s 36%
is similar to the world average, however South Africa is classified as a water stressed
area and cannot afford to have such high levels of water losses and NRW. Globally,
NRW ranges considerably, with Albania and Ecuador having more than 70%
compared to Australia, New Zealand, Cambodia and Singapore each attaining less
than 10% NRW.
Description of national plan to the Implementing the overall WDM programmes throughout a greater part of South
project
Africa’s communities could have an important impact on the socio‐economics of
South Africa. Significant impacts would be the ability to increase the safety and
continuity of water supply and reduce the risks of meeting the growing domestic and
commercial demand. At the same time, such programmes would assist in increasing
the reserve needed for environmental protection.
Status
The project can be considered to be in Phase 1 of the ICA Project Development
Phases.
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