Unaccounted-for-water management in Kwazulu Natal, S. Africa

摘要

Monitoring of rural water supply systems in KwaZulu Natal, South Africa, showed average unaccounted-for water (UAW) levels, sometimes loosely called water losses, of 60%, which were having financially detrimental effects on these, and other, projects. Despite a regulatory requirement for the Water Services Authorities (WSAs) to manage UAW, there was little guidance on rural UAW management. What follows is an outline of the developed UAW management programme procedure, from an MSc research project that comprised four months' work with two rural communities in KwaZulu Natal; Montebello and Emayelisweni. These communities had fully metered yard tap water supply systems managed through local water committees with support from Partners in Development, a local development engineering consultancy, Umgeni Water, the regional water utility and project Implementing Agent, and the Ilembe District Municipality (the WSA). Table 1 shows the UAW levels within the four month period of the research. UAW levels will vary month by month and an accurate assessment is only valid with at least 12 months' data. High percentages are due to low consumption levels, and highlight the sensitivity of rural projects to relatively low volumes of UAW. Volume/tap/day can be understood at a community level and translating these figures into financial equivalents helps to motivate UAW management. The South African Code of Practice (SABS, 1999) prefers the term specific loss, Q_(sl), in l/km/hr. This term will be useful to Water Service Authorities (WSAs) when comparing different systems but is unlikely to be understood at rural community levels. The management systems developed used litre/tap/day. It can be seen that the community level staff have taken ownership of the UAW programme at Emayelisweni, with UAW stable at low levels. The viability of the neighbouring Montebello scheme, however, is much less affected by water losses, and this may partly explain why there has been little if any improvement in UAW there. Montebello has also been adversely affected by several staff changes, and so retraining in UAW management is now required.