Non-Revenue Water Reduction and Performance

Improvement
Initiated in 2010
Executive Summary
The purpose of this report is to document learnt for improving
Water Supply and Sanitation (WSS) services in India, by reference to the recent
best practices prepared with in the states of India and from various studies
carried out by the World Bank on international good practices in urban water
service delivery. It talks about the core elements of best practice and proposes
how such Practices might be implemented.
As in most urban areas of India, water supply in was unreliable and
limited in coverage. Residents with house connections (about 50 percent, both
legal and illegal) had been used to getting unreliable water for 1 or 2 hours, and
with varying frequency of up to once every 10 days. All residents had to cope
with this situation by purchasing costly and unreliable service from water tankers
or by walking up to 200 meters to fetch water from stand posts. No sense of
being a customer who pays for and expects reliable water service existed.
The services are aimed at reducing water waste, eliminating non-revenue
water, improving overall water metering management capabilities and saving
money in the city of Hyderabad, initiated by Arad Group in 2010. The services
include maintenance and support, professional training, IT services, site analysis
and financing
In implementing these urban water solutions, there has been an
increasing recourse to delegated management through Public-Private Partnership
(PPP) route. In the water sector, delegated private utility is understood to refer
to

outsourcing

of

core

activities

such

as

construction,

operations

maintenance, and customer service for efficient management of services.

and

Introduction
Water supply is one of the most important functions of Urban Local Bodies
(ULBs) across the country. In, Hyderabad, where the water is a scarce resource,
the ULB with assistance from several state organizations takes immense
initiatives to provide water to citizens. Estimates at county level suggest that
almost 30-40% of water supplied is Non Revenue Water (NRW) and illegal
connections form a significant portion of this NRW. Non-revenue water (NRW)
is water that has been produced and is lost before it reaches to the customer.
Losses can be real losses through leaks, sometimes also referred to as physical
losses or apparent losses through theft or metering inaccuracies.

Initial Situation
The

Hyderabad

Metropolitan

Water

Supply

and

Sewerage

Board

(HMWSSB) is responsible for providing Water and Sewerage services to the

Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation. The services cover over 80 Lakh
people and a large number of commercial and other institutional users. To
provide these services, thousands of kilometres of lines have been laid and Six
circles with Seventeen Divisions are working exclusively on Operations and
Maintenance. The Board is an autonomous body under Act Hyderabad
Metropolitan Water Supply and Sewerage Act, 1989 and is responsible for supply
of potable water including planning, design, construction, implementation,
maintenance, operation & management of water supply and sewerage system.
The Board is stipulated to run on commercial lines by generating surplus through
tariffs in a manner to meet operational costs, capital expenditure and debt
servicing. The municipality often receives complaints from residents for low
pressure of water and illegal tap connections.
The demand is increasing at a rapid pace and distance of the sources from
the city is increasing by the day. The question is that from how many sources we
can bring potable water to city. The sources are limited but the demand is
getting more day by day. Therefore, unless we reduce, recycle and reuse the
water, the Board may not be able to quench the thirst of the citizens.
One of the major components which HMWSS Board can reduce is
Unaccounted Flow of Water (UFW). About 32% of the water drawn from the
above sources is U.F.W. i.e. about 100 MGD of water drawn is lost in leakages,
pilferages etc. The reduction of UFW is tediously long process. To reduce UFW in

a scientific way flow measurement is an important parameter. Hence, HMWSS

Board has taken a policy decision to install Docket-wise meters, including
domestic meters so that the difference between supplied quantity and billed
quantity will be a click away. Once 100% metering is achieved, then reduction of
UFW will be feasible at site realistically.

Project Initiation
The Hyderabad Metropolitan Water Supply and Sewerage Board has
introduced a new technology for water meter reading.
The Automatic Meter Reading (AMR) enables reading of water meter
remotely without having to go to the place where the meter is situated.
This upcoming technology is introduced on a BOOT basis. Under this
model, the vendor will bear the investment and also take care of installation,
maintenance, acquiring the meter readings remotely and distribution of bills.
The board will pay a monthly instalment towards amortizing the capital
cost and maintenance expenditure.

Contract awarded
The board has gone in for BOOT model as no funds would be required
initially by it. Ms. Mantech Constructions has been awarded the contract through
a tender process. Mantech brings in the technology of Ms Arad Technologies Ltd
of Israel which has similar installation is Israel and Texas.
According to a press release, normal water meters consists of an impeller
which rotates when water flows in a connected pipe and the rotations of the
impellers are calibrated to a reading on a dial which displays the volume of water
discharged.
But in the AMR meter, the water meters is fitted with an air tight chamber
consisting of an electronic device which converts the rotations of the impeller
into a pulse output which can be transmitted as a radio frequency signal or a
signal through a GSM SIM card.
The project is located in Patancheru area where 150 connections account
for a revenue of Rs. 4 crore per month to the board.
The geography of the project is spread over 40 sq km from Sangareddy to
Gacchibowli where manual reading of water is tedious and time consuming.

Accurate billing
The technology is expected to measure water supplied to the high volume
industrial customers in the areas more accurately and result in improved
accurate billing. The revenue is expected to go up by 20 per cent. The monthly
payment to Matech would be only Rs. 3.36 lakh. The benefits in terms of water
savings or increased billing is expected to far out weight the costs.
The board plans to introduce AMR technology on BOOT basis for all its
high volume customers in a phased manner in the near future.
The board is also working on technology consultancy projects which would
reduce its non-revenue water drastically and a global expression of interest is
already called for.
In order to the Unaccounted, the municipality decided to carry out a check
on property wise water connections in the town. For this, they undertook a stepwise approach

A team of municipal authorities went to areas from where they received

complaints frequently and tried to find out reasons of complains for low water

pressure.
They carried out door-to-door checking of water connections in these areas

as per the property- wise revenue records of Municipality.

In some cases property owners had more than one water connection. Some
property owners claimed that one of the connections is out of order. In that
case, municipal authorities again went for checking at the time when water

was supplied.
After identifying illegal water connections, the municipality issued notices to

the concerned property owners.

A public notice warning people about the offence was also published in the

local newspaper.
People were informed to close any illegal water connections within 15 days.
Copies of a general awareness notice were posted all over the town to spread

awareness among the residents.

A resolution was passed in the general meeting of municipality that if any
illegal property owner comes forward voluntarily to legalize the water
connection, municipality would regularize it after taking a charge Rs. 1000.
Otherwise the civic body would levy Rs. 500 as penalty charge for illegal
water connection.

Lessons learnt
The Municipality has to be strict in order to recover tax and penalty. The elected
body and staff need to work together in benefit of the ULB. Such steps are
important to be taken by ULBs to improve their cost recovery and for ensuring
equitable water supply. They also need to keep their records updated and tidy
for such follow-ups of tax recovery.
Sustainability
The Municipality is not conducting any special drives regularly for identifying
illegal water connections. It also needs to do follow-up checking about
disconnected water connections. For measuring the exact benefit or loss to the
ULB, they must quantify the consumption of water every day and keep a check
on it regularly.
Transferability
This action can be replicated in any municipal body to curb the issue of illegal
water connections.

Conclusions and the Way Ahead

It provides an opportunity to better understand the current water supply
situation in small towns. These have provided insights into the range of
technical, financial, and institutional challenges that water sector faces in India.
Converting a list of reform activities into better service and sustainability at the
ground level is not easy.
To deliver the results requires investment in new assets, in new systems
and procedures, and in creating a new mindset of service delivery and
sustainability, and not simply the creation of assets. The Central Government
has a key role to play through advocating policies and reforms, providing
guidance to the States and, critically, using its finance as a vehicle to incentivize
change and reward improvements in performance. At the State level reforms will
require roles and responsibilities to be better defined and current State level
agencies will likely evolve into facilitators and partners with the municipal
bodies. The municipal bodies will face certain challenges as they move from

being passive recipients of services, typically provided by State entities, into

positive managers of the service delivery process which is both sustainable and
provides better levels of service.
The challenge for India is how to turn the key findings from the study into
improved service delivery and sector sustainability in all towns.