Potable water losses fall by 12pc in 2017

NEW GAINS: Government subsidy to water sector shrinks 12pc in 2017 despite a 21pc surge in total water supply during the year

The Public Authority for Electricity and Water (Diam) has reported significant gains in the reduction of the copious amounts of potable water that is unaccounted for at various points along the utility’s ever expanding transmission, distribution and supply system.

Water losses — also known as Unaccounted for Water (UFW) or Non-revenue Water (NRW) — were reduced by around 12 per cent in 2017 over corresponding figures for 2016, PAEW Chairman Mohammed bin Abdullah al Mahrouqi said.

Controlling unaccounted for water (UFW) is a key priority, says Diam. “Water enters the system from a range of sources: desalination plants and wells. It is then transported and distributed to our customers by pipe or via tankers. On the way some water is used in PAEW’S own operations but a significant proportion, more than 30 per cent, is not accounted for. Some of this is lost through overflowing reservoirs or leaks and the rest is not recorded properly, due either to fraud or theft, to metering or billing errors, or to a lack of metering,” the stateowned utility explained.

A staggering 129 million cubic metres of potable water across Diam’s nationwide network went unaccounted in 2016, up 25 per cent from the previous year’s figure of 103 million m3. In terms of total supply, unaccounted for water represented a whopping 39 per cent share, although not all of it is in the form of physical losses. Some could be more commercial in nature. Changes in billing practices, as well as the use of estimates in place of actual readings, are often to blame — practices Diam has vowed to change.

In a brief snapshot of the water’s utility financial and operational performance in 2017, Al Mahrouqi