Managing Non-Revenue Water: Balanced Focus through Holistic Management Approach

Managing non-revenue water is a key to maximizing revenues while minimizing costs and sustaining valuable resources. The City of Wilmington, Delaware has been grappling with significant water loss issues and hence with the assistance of Black & Veatch has been proactively focusing on utilizing a holistic approach to manage non-revenue water. The first step involved implementing effective tools for reliably measuring and tracking “real” and “apparent” losses. With the tools in place, the next step was to implement a holistic management approach to tackle both the real and the apparent losses. This approach included establishing a task force to focus on water loss control; identification and prioritization of initiatives; development and measurement of Key Performance Indicators (KPIs); and continuous measurement. This paper also discusses some of the financial benefits that the City is already beginning to realize through the management and operational initiatives underway.