The Kerala Water Authority (KWA) is vetting a proposal to prepare a three-dimensional Geographical Information System (GIS)-aided map of the pipelines in the city’s distribution system.
The GIS-aided maps would help the KWA to get a correct picture of the distribution lines that criss-cross the city. KWA sources told The Hindu that the facility would also help in tracing any defect, leakage or any other disorder in water and sewage lines.
The proposal comes in the wake of a recent study by the Non-Revenue Water Management unit, Kochi, which revealed that only about 50 per cent of the total production of drinking water at the Aluva water treatment plant of the KWA reached the public.
The report had stated that unattended leakages in air valves and the pipelines contributed significantly to the increasing percentage of non-revenue water in the city. Officials pointed out that only a scientific assessment using GIS map would help in recording the leakage points in the city pipelines.
The 3D-GIS map of the entire transmission and distribution network would provide a comprehensive picture of the numerous leaks in the distribution system. As per the official records, the city has a total distribution network of 1,500 km covering major parts of the city. Water is supplied to the region through three main clear water sumps having a total capacity of 21 million litres.
KWA estimates say that public health division, Kochi, utilises more than 50 per cent of the water pumped from the Aluva water treatment plant. The remaining WS division, Kochi and HW division, Aluva utilise only less than 25 per cent of water.
The GIS map will aid the measurement of overall production and distribution through the transmission mains and also help in co-relating it with the revenue collection to ascertain the actual non-revenue water in the city.
Only 104 mld (million litres per day) of drinking water was accounted for out of the total 168 mld reaching the city from the pumping station in Aluva according to the data available with the KWA as on February last year. Lack of a proper mechanism to assess the widening gap between supply and billing remains a major bottleneck in checking water loss in the region.
