One of the key indicators of efficient water management is accurate measurement of consumption. Urban local bodies (ULBs) currently face issues such as obsolete pipeline networks, pipeline damage from corrosion or third-party activities, worn-out pressure valves, tampered or damaged meters, and shortage of staff to address complaints. This results in a mismatch between the supply and consumption of water, leading to high non-revenue water (NRW) levels, which currently hover around 50 per cent. Further, there are issues of illegal connections and meter reading inaccuracies owing to poor asset management practices, also resulting in losses.
The management of water supply services has become a challenging task due to the growing population, expanding industrial and agricultural activities, depleting water resources and deteriorating infrastructure. Reportedly, piped water coverage in India has remained stagnant at 44 per cent for over two decades. The major challenges include the rehabilitation and maintenance of the vast water network infrastructure. Losses due to increasing NRW levels resulting from leakages in the pipeline network further exacerbate the problem. Bigger cities such as Delhi too report water distribution losses of up to 40 per cent of the total water supplied. To add to the existing predicament, the outbreak of Covid-19 has highlighted the need to expand water supply infrastructure across the country and bridge the infrastructure gap that exists.
Government initiatives
With a water crisis plaguing many parts of the country, the central government has taken a number of initiatives to ensure proper water network management. Some of the key programmes focusing on the improvement of water supply services are the Smart Cities Mission and the Atal Mission for Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation. In 2019, the central government also launched the Jal Shakti Abhiyan (JSA) and the JalJeevan Mission (JJM). The JSA aims at creating awareness with respect to water conservation and management while the JJM’s chief objective is providing piped water to every rural household in the country by 2024. In the first quarter of 2020-21, 1.9 million tap connections have been provided to rural households under the JJM.
At the city level, some ULBs have adopted smart IT-based solutions to improve the efficiency, longevity and reliability of their water network infrastructure. The adoption of advanced metering and bill collection methods, detailed mapping of assets and underground pipes, and deployment of leakage control technologies and supervisory control and data acquisition systems are some of the key steps that have been taken to contain the losses resulting from increasing NRW levels.
Further, private sector players are also being engaged to improve water supply, replace age-old pipeline networks, reduce NRW and meter water supply connections. For instance, the Delhi Jal Board privatised water supply services in the Mehrauli and VasantVihar areas of south Delhi. The scope of work for the private players also entailed laying 78 km of water pipelines, augmenting 12.3 km of transmission mains, constructing underground reservoirs, rehabilitating the water supply system and improving service levels, among others.
Further, ULBs are also replacing water supply pipelines and manual meters and addressing leakages in pipeline networks as part of the 24×7 water supply projects. Cities such as Pune, Coimbatore and Chandigarh have already started replacing old water supply pipelines and deploying smart meters in order to achieve round-the-clock water supply. The Karnataka Urban Infrastructure Development and Finance Corporation has initiated the process of implementing a 24×7 water supply project in Bengaluru. Further, the New Delhi Municipal Council has set targets for improving the quality of water services. These include providing 24×7 uninterrupted water supply, ensuring 100 per cent water supply coverage, reducing the NRW level to 20 per cent (over a period of two years) and ensuring 100 per cent metering of water connections.
The road ahead
Pipelines play a critical role in reducing the level of NRW, which is a key performance indicator for water utilities. High levels of NRW indicate a poorly managed water utility. Several initiatives have been taken to address this issue. However, to boost pipeline network expansion, supporting measures in the form of timely replacement of obsolete pipelines, plugging of leakages, installation of sensors for leakage detection and metering of connections are necessary. At the same time, utilities and/or operators need to be vigilant and deploy advanced technologies and solutions not only to extend the life of the existing pipelines but also to prevent damage in the future.