WATER FIRM SEEKS WAYS FOR EFFICIENT RESOURCE MANAGEMENT

PERFORMANCE in management of Non-Revenue Water and reduction requires significant interventions in terms of investments and capacity development to ensure that the sector benchmark of 25 per cent is attained, Nkana Water Supply and Sanitation Company (NWSSC) Board Chairman Mark Sikwenda has said.

Mr Sikwenda said non- revenue water was not only a key performance indicator for the water utility company, but a critical step towards the commercial viability of water utilities and can significantly contribute to improved service provision.

Mr Sikwenda was speaking at Garden Court Hotel in Kitwe during the Board Non-Revenue Water Management Capacity Building Workshop which was aimed at managing non- revenue water and reduction.

Mr Sikwenda said the water saved through various interventions can assist in improving water supply in other water stressed areas, improve hours of supply to customers and could also raise revenue by increasing the amount of water billed.

“This, in turn increases profitability and improves the return on investment. We are grappling with physical losses due to leaks , pipe bursting arising from old pipe networks and water overflows from storage reservoirs at distribution centres, commercial losses due to unbilled properties, wrong billing , meter inaccuracies, poor customer records and water thefts through illegal connections.

“All these have serious effects on financial viability of the NWSSC through lost revenue, lost water resources , and increased operational costs. So it is evident that the company’s performance in management of non-revenue water and reduction requires significant interventions in terms of investments and capacity development to ensure that the sector benchmark of 25 per cent is attained,’’ Mr Sikwenda said.

He said the major challenges affecting the Water Sector and particularly, Water Utilities in Zambia was high non-revenue water and the causes of high levels of non-revenue water vary from one utility to another, given the capabilities and characteristics of the systems.

He said, while efforts were being made in the reduction of non-revenue water , the suspension of the NWSSP phase two has negatively affected the implementation of the works aimed at management and reduction of the non-revenue water , saying this challenge has therefore resulted in the slow pace in actualising the reduction targets.