Enhancing the management of water losses in water supply and promoting prevention to reduce leakage

Reduction of Non-Revenue Water (NRW) in Water Supply Systems

Taiwan Water Corporation has put a great effort into non-revenue water (NRW) reduction. Since 2004, they have launched several large-scale pipeline replacements and established construction plans for a district metering network. By 2013, the leakage rate in Taiwan had been reduced from 24.58% to 18.53%.

In 2013, the Taiwan Water Corporation started a new phase of this project—the Leakage Rate Reduction Plan (2013 to 2022). Calling on international leakage reduction strategies, this plan enhances the water supply loss management through four aspects: water pressure management, quality and speed of leakage repair, active leakage control, and management of pipelines and assets. It’s expected that NT$ 79.6 billion will be invested over 10 years to reduce the leakage rate in Taiwan to below 14.25%.

Stantec and Tokyo Suido Service worked together as the lead consulting team to help implement several leakage rate reduction projects for cities with higher leakage rates—Keelung, Taichung, and Kaohsiung. We provided consultation and research services as well as hydraulic model support from our Stantec Australia team.

Based on analysis from engineering, business, and operation perspectives, we have created an itemized plan with over 10 aspects and a total of 142 tender projects to ensure that the NRW of the three priority water supply systems can be reduced to the target. It will take six years to complete the projects, and the total budget is estimated to be over NT$ 5 billion. When complete, these projects will manage the leakage problem and improve the stability of water suppliesin Keelung, Taichung, and Kaohsiung.