Some aspects of the unaccounted-for-water problem in public water supply systems

Summary

Until recently the regulatory documents in the Russian Federation have not prescribed any determination of unaccounted-for-water in the public water supply systems. As a guidance manual «The Instructions on Evaluation and Regulation of Unaccounted-for-Water in Public Water Supply Systems» and «Methods of Determining and Regulating Unaccounted-for-Water and Water Losses in Public Water Supply Systems» were used that are not valid by the present moment. These documents had no force since they had not been registered in the RF Ministry of Justice. The mentioned documents were replaced with Order of the RF Ministry of Civil Engineering and Public Utilities No. 640-pr of October 17, 2014 «On the approval of the Methodical Guidelines on the calculation of hot, drinking and process water losses in public water supply systems during treatment and transportation». The advantages and some drawbacks of the Methodical Guidelines are considered. The field of the document application is limited to the development of water supply balance diagrams for the water services companies, whereas the methodologic solution to the unaccounted-for-water problem could provide for substantiating, for examples, the water tariffs, water abstraction limits, and for developing the programs of water and resources conservation for the company itself. Neither the process consumption, nor the losses at the water intakes and their infrastructure facilities were taken into account. The incorporation of the comments presented in the article will provide for finding solutions to most of the problems faced by vodokanals in a more substantiated way.

Key words

unaccounted-for water , water and wastewater systems , process consumption , specific water flow rate , water supply balance