In a prelude to comprehensive water audit, the HMWSSB is mulling over the idea of ‘District Metering Areas’, whereby water meters of a particular locality could be grouped to measure the ‘Non-Revenue Water’ (NRW).
Non-Revenue Water is the water supplied for which the Board does not get any revenue. Most often it is illegal by way of pilferage, but NRW can also be sourced to leakages from pipelines.
Further, users such as religious places and Fire Department are legally allowed free supply of water. The NRW study will be undertaken in Jubilee Hills, Madhapur, and Narayanguda, where DMAs will initially be set up.
Already, four agencies have been awarded the study project.
“Under the DMA project, individual meters and a bulk meter will be grouped together and fenced off. We will get to know if the water supplied is matching the water consumed. If not, we will need to follow a protocol to check various sources of NRW,” said MD, HMWSSB, M. Dana Kishore. Water audit will then be taken up for 105 sections, where the input water will be checked against the billed water.
NRW constitutes 40 % of the total water supplied by the Board, resulting in losses of ₹ 60 crore per month for the Board.
For pumping of the illegal water itself, more than ₹ 25 crore per month is wasted.
