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Digital one water smart utility3/18/2023 challenges in measuring total water distributed and consumed) are often caused by an absence of water metering or the utilization of older mechanical meters susceptible to inaccuracies and that limit the frequency and type of data collected to monitor water distribution and consumption. In both contexts, commercial NRW issues (i.e. ![]() The annual cost of NRW due to leaks or illegal connections worldwide was estimated by the World Bank at USD 14 billion per year in 2006, a third of which was attributable to the developing world.3 While NRW in high income countries is estimated to total 17 percent of total water production versus at least double that amount in low-income countries, the fact that the developed world accounts for two thirds of the total annual costs is likely attributable to much higher levels of water consumption by households in richer countries.4 Many utilities lack the ability to collect data necessary to locate leaks or determine demand characteristics, which impacts productivity and financial resources. ![]() Water utilities rely on data such as water consumption characteristics, sources of non-revenue water (NRW), parts inventories, and customer information for day-to-day usiness operations and long-term planning. This paper elaborates on several of these core challenges and, building on Cowater’s experience with water utilities projects, illustrates how ‘smart’ approaches to utility management – focused largely on automation and better data management – can offer transformative solutions that will strengthen water utilities’ financial sustainability, their capacity to meet capital investment and regulatory requirements, their customer service orientation, and their resiliency to external shocks. In most developing and many emerging economies, however, water utilities lack the infrastructure, reliable data, information management systems, and predictable revenue bases with which to address these challenges and priorities. Caribbean countries, for example, are predicted to experience a five to six percent decrease in annual rain fall due to climate change (posing a threat to bulk water supplies) are vulnerable to annual cycles of increasingly frequent and severe hurricanes (threatening transmission, distribution and collection infrastructure) and 29 percent of their populations, including significant pumping and transmission infrastructure, reside within five meters of sea level. As such, operators are required to balance heightened regulatory requirements related to operating standards, water quality and customer service while also investing in, replacing or extending water distribution infrastructure, especially in the context of a changing climate. 1Ĭowater’s experience working with urban water utilities has highlighted the unique challenges they face in maintaining sustainable operating models in the face of pressures to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals on access to water. In 2009, the OECD estimated the cost of modernizing and expanding water and sanitation infrastructure to meet these needs at US $13.6 trillion, or US $900 million per year from 2016-2030. ![]() For instance, while an estimated 37% of Africans need access to piped water, the financial capital is often not available. Many water utilities, particularly in emerging and developing countries, are faced with the challenge of ensuring sustainable operating models in the face of significant capital expenditures to replace or extend infrastructure. Clean drinking water is essential for health, social and economic development.
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