Water Board to fix meters to check unaccounted losses
As much as 35 to 40 per cent of water, treated, pumped and
distributed by the city water board (HMWS&SB) is either lost or
Unaccounted for Water (UFW) in Greater Hyderabad limits.
To have
proper accountability and to reduce the the huge loss of water, the
HMWS&SB has decided to install water meters at all transmission and
distribution systems. It has invited Expression of Interest (EOI) from
consultants to prepare a Detailed Project Report (DPR) for the proposed
metering project up to docket level.
The board is supplying water
to various operation zones from sources such as Osmansagar,
Himayatsagar, Singur, Manjira and Krishna through Trunk Transmission
system.
In this context, to set accountability and reduce UFW, it invited EOI from reputed consultants.
Water
board officials told Express that the UFW is the difference between
water produced and supplied to the distribution system and water sold.
This difference may be attributable to physical losses such as leakage
or overflow of water due poor material, age and corrosion of the
network, leaking joints etc. and non-physical losses such as unrecorded
supply, theft of water, unregistered connections, faulty meters,
unrecorded supply due to poor records and billing errors.
They
said the proposed metering system would consist of clear water flow
meters of appropriate technology and size at levels that include flow
meters at Treatment Plants to measure the clear water produced, off take
wise meters to enable transmission wing to release and monitor required
quantities to Operation and Maintenance (O&M) Divisions.
Divisions
wise meters will arrive at net quantities flowing into each division
and docket level meters will assess the water supplied to each division
to establish water accountability and accurate billing system.
Apart
from the study and suggestion of the metering system, the consultant
would be asked to study the mapping of lineman and meter reading staff
responsible for releasing water and billing at the consumer level.
The
DPR should also consist of recommendations on exact location,
technology and cost estimates for the proposed meters, maintenance
mechanism etc.
