A Basic Primer on How Water Loss Impacts Us All

Among the very top of the hurdles that the Metro Iloilo Water District has been experiencing is water loss, or Non Revenue Water (NRW). This  loss is due to many factors, such as water theft due to illegal connections, faulty pipelines, accidental damage, pipeline leaks, and the like. This water loss is called Non Revenue Water. MIWD—and most, if not all other water districts—have been struggling with NRW since its inception, and ironically, the more water that is being produced, the more the potential water loss increases. There had been a point in the Water District’s time that Non Revenue Water has reached to up to 57%.

Among the top hurdles that the Metro Iloilo Water District is water loss due to multiple factors, such as water theft due to illegal connections, faulty pipelines, accidental damage, pipeline leaks, and the like. This water loss is called Non Revenue Water. MIWD—and most, if not all other water districts—have been struggling with NRW since its inception, and ironically, the more water being produced, the more the potential water loss increases. There had been a point in the Water District’s time that Non Revenue Water has reached to up to 50%.

For visualization’s sake, this means that for every glass of water that Water District produces for its concessionaires, half of that glass is spilled out even before it reaches the intended households. This creates wastage in water resources and a massive loss of profit for the company as well: customers could have had twice the water for daily use, that for every peso paid by the concessionaires, MIWD only earns 50 cents out of that full peso. Had there been no loss of profit, the earnings could have been used to overhaul the its antiquated pipes, some of which have been around for over half a century.

But there will be three primary conditions before NRW: Time, Expertise, a lot of Data and Resources. Thankfully, the Joint Venture between MIWD and the Metro Pacific Investment Corporation that resulted in the creation of the Metro Pacific Iloilo Water and Metro Iloilo Bulk Water Supply have the latter two of the aforementioned four conditions, and combining their industry-spanning expertise with the irreplaceable experience of its MIWD staff, it will only be a matter of Time before NRW becomes a figment of the past.

In Feature: Mechanical meter and gate valve installation on the existing 300mm diameter pipeline along Pagsanga-an-Tacas-Quintin Salas Road on Wednesday, 11 August 2021.

Tacas 300mm meter installation preparation the day before (August 10, 2021)

Tacas Jaro on-going flowmeter installation activity by MPIW.

Fixing of flowmeter pipe appurtenances prior to installation.

 

 

Above ground alignment of pipes, assembling, fixing and tightening of valves and fittings.