Manila's remarkable performance offers leakage lessons for Asia

摘要

Chronic water losses have been the hallmark of urban Asia's water management over the decades. This may not have mattered much during an era of assumed plenty. But the rapid growth of Asia's towns and cities, coupled with increased volumes of water for irrigated agriculture, energy, and industry, has meant that there is much less water to go around in the urban centres.The loss of an estimated 29 billion cubic metres of treated water every year, valued conservatively at $9 billion, is no longer something that Asia's urban water managers can ignore,' writes Arjun Thapan, the Special Senior Advisor to the President of the Asian Development Bank (ADB), in the foreword to the Bank's most recent water loss publication.