WATERLOSS MANAGEMENT OF WATER LOSSES IN A DRINKING WATER SUPPLY SYSTEM

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1 WATERLOSS MANAGEMENT OF WATER LOSSES IN A DRINKING WATER SUPPLY SYSTEM Issue 6 May 2013 Presentation of WATERLOSS Pilot Areas WATERLOSS project aims to assist regional actors to face the emerging issues of water management and shortage. Therefore, WATERLOSS will develop a decision support tool, aiming to a prioritized list of measures for controlling water losses adapted to regional conditions. This DSS tool and the corresponding water loss reduction measures, will be then applied in the selected partners areas, providing a critical evaluation of the results. WATERLOSS project includes pilot areas from all participating countries; Greece, France, Cyprus, Spain, Slovenia, and Italy. In this 6 th and final newsletter the pilot area carried out by the Regional Development Centre in Slovenia will be presented. Key info: MED programme Total budget: 1, ERDF contribution: 1, Project Duration Partnership Aristotle University of Thessaloniki (Greece) Conseil Général des Pyrénées Orientales (France) Water Board of Nicosia (Cyprus) Regional Development Centre (Slovenia) Metropolitan Area of Barcelona (Spain) Municipal Enterprise for Water Supply and Sewerage in Kozani (Greece) Liri-Garigliano & Volturno Rivers Basin Authority (Italy) University of Ljubljana (Slovenia) Départment of Hérault (France) gardenmandy.com

2 Slovenian Pilot area Municipal utility company Velenje operates the mandatory economic public service, operating the public water network in Saleška dolina. The network includes four water systems: two main systems in Velenje, Šoštanj and two smaller ones in Šmartno ob Paki and Cirkovce. In regard to the accumulated water, the NRW amounts to 34%, while water loss is estimated to be around 30%. Water losses vary from year to year, with the trend showing slow rise during the last years. Watersupply network in Šaleška dolina serves residents, with 3 million m 3 of tap water sold each year. The network consists of 79 DMA. Every area calculates its own account of lost water (calculated as the discrepancy between water delivered and water used) twice a year and according to the result the leak proofness plan is drawn up. Among the measures taken to lower the amount of water losses in Šaleška dolina are: following the water losses in each measuring area (DMA) rapid and efficient search for faults in the network search and elimination of non-allowed water use integration and use of "C" grade water-meters In the last years different EU co-funded measures and projects are being implemented in the Šaleška dolina water network area. In the span of three years 42 million EUR will be used to upgrade the network, improving the efficiency of the water network to estimated NRW (nonrevenue water) less than 25%. PROJECT TEAM Mr. Dejan Zupanc is a partner s project manager and is responsible for the implementation of the project activities within the Slovene pilot area. Mrs. Petra Stropnik is the employee of the KP Velenje and is a communal service engineer responsible for the implementation of water distribution. Page 2

3 Overview of Decision Support System In the management of WSS control of water losses and NRW plays an important role. Excessive water losses have important impact on WSS management and affect both, effectiveness to provide water to customers as well as its efficiency. Importance of water losses was recognized as a priority within EU transnational cooperation programme MED, with WATERLOSS project developed within this programme. Among several objectives of the WATERLOSS project, University of Ljubljana has focused on the DSS for the development of NRW reduction strategies. WATERLOSS project provides practical and innovative solutions. Practical approach is seen in the design of decision support system (DSS) which enables operators to develop or verify their own NRW reduction strategy. DSS is at the same time a learning tool and helps WSS operators and administrators to get familiar with a wide range of possible measures for the NRW reduction. Conceptual framework is based upon the firm baseline of the IWA indicators and approaches. Aim of the DSS is to bridge the gap between the WSS indicators and possible NRW reduction measures as seen from the schematic representation below. SCHEMATIC REPRESENTATION OF THE PROCESS THAT IS SUPPORTED BY DECISION SUPPORT TOOL IWA WATER BALANCE REPORTING AND EVALUATION First step of the DSS is a reporting tool by which users report information on their WSS to the DSS. Main group of indicators is representing water balance. Limited set of IWA indicators and some additionally developed are used for the WATERLOSS DSS. Page 3

4 Overview of Decision Support System WATERLOSS DSS DECISION TREE WATERLOSS DSS is evaluating the information on specific WSS and inducing priority measures which form a NRW reduction strategy for this WSS. For the purpose of the WATERLOSS DSS two -level classification of NRW reduction measures was developed (catalogue of strategic measures; catalogue of operational measures). The DSS is guiding the user to the level of strategic NRW reduction measures with the developed decision tree. Decision nodes of the decision tree are defined by thresholds, which could be country-specific. More detailed operational measures corresponding to each strategic measure are qualitatively assessed. REPORTING IN THE IMPLEMENTED NRW REDUCTION MEASURES Thresholds that are defining the decision making strategy were identified as a critical issue, due to the fact that there is no systematic collection of experiences on implemented measures, their effects and costs. Therefore it is impossible to develop thresholds based upon the measured results. A reporting system was developed as a part of the DSS in order to collect these experiences, enabling better definition of the thresholds in the future. Page 4

5 University of Ljubljana (UL) University of Ljubljana, Faculy of Civil and Geodetic Engineering ( is one of the two Universty research partners in the Waterloss project. Specific task of the University of Ljubljana team was the development of the decision support system for the identification of NRW reduction strategies. The team has several years of experiences in this domain covering different aspects of water management pollution management, drinking water management, urban waste water management, hydraulic structures management, accidental pollution mangement, irrigation and drainage system management, flood management and other. They were developed for national authorities and international partners. The team consists of four members: Assist. Prof. dr. Primoz Banovec, Civ. Eng. DSS development task leader, conceptualization and development of the DSS and integration with other elements of the Waterloss project; Matej Cerk, Civ. Eng., DSS system developer (IT support) and integrator; Ajda Cilensek, Engineer in Water Management, database management, project administration; Nina Vengust, responsible for the dissimination activities in final months of the Waterloss project. Page 5

6 Project Events Information & Awareness Seminars in partner countries The partners of the WATERLOSS project organized the following Information and Awareness seminars in their countries since March 2013 and until the end of the project in May 2013: 5 March & 7 March-Ljubljana, Slovenia 29 March-Kozani, Greece 29 March-Perpignan, France 26 April-Barcelona, Spain 15 May-Nicosia, Cyprus 30 May-Caserta, Italy Approximately 400 people from water management authorities, utility networks, local public authorities, as well as policy makers & citizens attended these seminars. The focus was on the presentation of an integrated management of water networks, with emphasis on water losses, the water balance as well as the Performance Indicators. Dissemination material was distributed to the participants. Page 6

7 Project Events Training Seminars in partner countries The partners of the WATERLOSS project organized the following Training seminars in their countries since March 2013 and until the end of the project in May 2013: 5 March & 7 March-Ljubljana, Slovenia 28 March-Kozani, Greece 11 April-Thessaloniki, Greece 15 &16 April-Montpellier, France 13 May-Aversa, Italy 13 &14 May-Montpellier, France 16 & 17 May-Nicosia, Cyprus 17 & 23 May-Castellbisbal, Spain 24 May-Kozani, Greece 30 May-Caserta, Italy Approximately 500 technicians from water management authorities and water distribution networks attended these trainings. The main focus of the training seminars was the presentation of the Decision Support System tool that was developed within the project and the demonstration of ways to upgrade the performance of the managed water supply systems. Page 7

8 Dissemination Activities Dissemination plays a key role from the very start of the project and throughout the project s implementation. WATERLOSS partners have been very active on disseminating the project s actions in order to raise awareness on the importance of water loss reduction. 15 th March 2013: Aristotle University of Thessaloniki participated at a stakeholders event in Chania, Greece, of a similar to WATERLOSS, MED project, named MEDIWAT. During the event, WATERLOSS project was presented and specifically a presentation was given regarding the project results on Non-revenue water (NRW) issues in the Mediterranean area. 4 th 7 th April 2013: The University of Ljubljana participated in the Spring Fair for Construction, Energetics, Municipal Services and Trade, in Gornja Radgona, Slovenia. During the fair the University presented WATERLOSS and displayed a roll up poster. 11 th 13 th April 2013: Aristotle University, in cooperation with the University of Thessaly and with the support of the European Water Resources Association (EWRA), organized in Thessaloniki the 1 st EWaS-MED International Conference entitled: Improving Efficiency of Water Systems in a changing natural and financial environment. The idea for the organization of this scientific conference was generated by AUTH s experience with project WATERLOSS. The Conference s key topic was the improvement of the efficiency of water supply networks in order to reduce the non-revenue water, which mainly included water losses due to leakage and breakage of pipes, water theft and false water meter readings. Project WATERLOSS was widely represented at the Conference as partners WBN, PO, AMB, UL and DEYAK attended it and submitted scientific papers, presenting their experiences from WATERLOSS implementa- 24 th 26 th April 2013: Aristotle University attended the IWA 3rd Conference on Water Economics, Statistics and Finance, in Marbella, Spain. During the Conference AUTH presented the scientific paper entitled Presenting a new set of indicators for urban water pipe networks performance assessment: from theory to practice. 21 st May 2013: Aristotle University of Thessaloniki created synergies with similar INTERREG IVC project SHARP Page 8

9 Dissemination Activities 31 May2013: On 31st May 2013, the subjects of Water Management and of the Non- Revenue water were discussed during the General Assembly of the European Council of Civil Engineers in Lisbon. Mr. George Demetriou from the Water Board Nicosia presented the issue of the Non-revenue water with reference to the Waterloss program and Non-Revenue water in Nicosia. Mr. Demetriou gave a presentation within the frame of the works of the Steering Committee for the Environment and Sustainability. He was elected as a vice-chairman of the committee and he will be actively involved in the works for the next meeting and discussion of the water management and water scarcity in Cyprus. It is noted that the issue of water scarcity and water management in general is considered of critical importance in Europe and in many other countries and it will be included in the agenda of the Committee. WATERLOSS cooperation story WATERLOSS partners, with the help of partner AMB, have also prepared a WATERLOSS cooperation story, for further dissemination and capitalization of the project results. The WATERLOSS cooperation story was initially prepared in English and was later translated into all partners languages. It has been distributed to the stakeholders of each partner s region. Project meetings 8 th -10 th April 2013: The final Steering Committee meeting of the WATERLOSS project was organized by the Municipal Enterprise for Water Supply and Sewerage of Kozani (DEYAK) in Kozani, Greece. The main focus was on the fine-tuning of the main WATERLOSS deliverable, e.g. the Decision Support System (how to reduce NRW, NRW reduction measures database browsing, suggestion of feasible and appropriate NRW measures for specific WSS). Page 9