How to do a strategic Water auditing for town?

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There has been a growing concern over efficient water utilisation in our country, yet there is limited capacity or experience to carry out water audits on larger scales like for towns or catchments.

Can someone help me with designing a checklist of Water Data required for water auditing and the detailed process?

Also, help me setting up a questionnaire for collecting the data for WA from utility and public.

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16 Answers

  3. Dear Mr. Kudzai Bhunu ,

    I agree with Mr. prem baboo he had covered all the points fpr an ideal water audit but you can also cosider figues of Rain water harvesting , water recycling , sewage recycling then you will be in a better position . Also consider Numbers of borewells , their hours of operation , Capacity , because when you add up the details you will get more realistic estimates . For this you have to hire dedicated people for collection of Data , then this data is to be processed to get exact water audit report.


  4. Try to establish links with particular catchment councils for the respective area you intend to map, it looks like there is some kind data available for such, for example the transboundry water management for middle Zambezi reiver course is managed by the Zambezi River Authority, only between Zimbabwe and Zambia. For the greater Zambezi river basin there is much work to do. Water audits is still a long way to go for some catchments due to lack of finance, infrastructure and strong mechanisims to manage.

  6. Good morning Kudzai an interesting question. Your approach to the audit and a design of questionnaire is based on a few things and as a result I have a few questions? Isthe water utility the primary supplier of water and how widespread is the mettering? What is the size of the township and socioeconomic profile? What is the main objective of the questionnaire (study) that is what is, the information your are trying to gather that isof primary importance to your project? Regards. Denise

  8. Dear Kudzai

    Water audit is an effective management tool for minimizing losses, optimizing various uses and thus enabling considerable conservation of water not in irrigation sector alone but in other sectors of water use such as domestic, power and industrial as well. Water auditing is not a new concept. Over the years, the systems usually do not work up to its design efficiency due to battery of reasons, mainly due to inefficient operation and poor/deferred maintenance and other factors. Central Water Commission and Central Ground Water Board to be formulated "General Guidelines for Water Audit and Water Conservation “Find out town population, Family and economic condition of all family, some budget can be distributed on public as per economic condition. Summarize the history of the Towns’ water resources planning efforts and water conservation programs. Supply-side Management, Demand-side Management.

    A water system audit collects data on accounted and unaccounted water. Unaccounted water includes water that is metered but not billed and water that is not metered. Unmetered water consists of authorized uses (fire protection, flushing mains, etc.), as well as unauthorized uses (losses due to accounting errors, thefts, inaccurate meters, and leaks). Water conservation plans should address conservation on the supply side as well as on the demand side. The water audit provides: an analysis of historical water use; an on-site survey and assessment of water-using hardware, fixtures, equipment, landscaping, and management practices to determine the efficiency of water use;

    1. Prepare a demand forecast.
    2. Identify and select potential water conservation measures.

    (A). Required Elements.

    1. Metering.
    2. Water Accounting and Loss Control.
    3. Pricing.
    4. Information and Education Program

    (B). Recommended Elements

    1. Develop outreach for specific users.
    1. Conduct Water Use Audits for Consumers.
    2. Offer fixture retrofits and replacements.
    3. Offer rebates and incentives.
    4. Promote water reuse and recycling.
    5. Encourage landscape efficiency.
    1. Pressure Management -Reducing excessive pressures in the distribution system can save water by reducing stresses that could result in leakage, decreasing quantities of water that are currently leaking, and reducing the amount of flow through fixtures. Recommendations: • Assess the need for pressure management in residential areas with pressures greater than 80 pounds per square inch. • Install pressure reducing valves in street mains and in buildings where appropriate.
    2. Water-Use Regulations

    Develop and present implementation strategy-

    The water utility should develop a schedule and timetable for implementing the water conservation strategies. Implementation actions should include a timetable for securing budgetary resources, hiring staff, procurement of materials, acquisition of any necessary permits, and activity milestones.

    Find the shut-off valve on the water supply riser which is typically located in the front of your house just below the hose bib.

    Budget- It is the responsibility of the Manager Sustainability of the Property and Facilities Division to allocate the appropriate resources to the water management program for the town on an annual basis.

    Regards,

    Prem Baboo



  9. Hi Kudzai.
    As you can see from the comments here, there are a few different ways of estimating water use with various levels of accuracy. You can get some good results using surveys/questionnaires if they are well constructed and well targeted. You may also be able to use existing data sources. Obviously detailed metered information is desirable, but this is very expensive and the other means may be fit for purpose.
    I have quite a few years of experience in water accounting and water survey design and can give you some pointers on what has worked for me in the past. You can email me at stuart.peevor@eibconsulting.com.au
    I hope this helps.
    Stuart

  10. Thank you very much guys for the important insights it would be really good to implement some of the things that you have mentioned. Unfortunately some of the equipment is so run down and old that it will be an issue installing sensors when there is neeed to replace the network. Finance also is a nother limitation but i applaude our councils for seein the value of Water Auditing but the ability now to bring on board an international consultant i believe it will be hampered by the unavailability of finances.

  11. I agree with Diego. At the very first stage you will need to a have a more precise definition of the scope of audit. Once you have a clear understanding of the scope of audit you can send a request for interest to 5-10 international companies. In each proposal you will receive a nice list of what will be done and what has been done already. You will just need to summarize the information provided by each company.

    Theoretically you always start with the hydrolic balance (water balance) in you city. You will need to find all parts of the equitation where water supplied to the system = water used in the system + leakage + water rejected to the ground.

    At this stage you will need to order a water metering system audit. At the end of this audit you will understand the status of the water / waste water metering systems. Which types of water meters do you have at present (technical, industrial, commercial, domestic (residential).  Does your current water metering system allow you to find all elements of the hydrolic balance equitation ?  If yes you will find that 100 m3 of water supplied to the system = 70 m3 ejected to the ground + 10 m3 used in the system + 20 m2 leakages. Than you can order the audit of leakages to understand the elements of the equitation total leakages = identified leakages  + non-identified leakages. Identified leakages will be results of water network accidents/ Km/month and duration of each accident. 

    You can order an audit of the water /        waste water networks to understand the length of the network, characteristics of pipes (age, materials, size). You can order a financial audit to understand the pricing policy and effectiveness of the financial policy.    You can order an audit of pumping stations to understand the efficiency of your pumping equipment. You can order an audit of your water treatment facilities. 

  12. We can offer consulting services for suggesting one or more soluitons. The system will comprise water storage tank level sensors, flow and pressure transmitters in the piping network, collecting data wirelessly at control and command centre and analyse the same to understand water losses or to carry out an audit.

  13. The first step to planning a Water Auditing is to define the scope of that auditing. For an operational auditing, you have the answer given by Robert Welke; for and commercial or financial auditing you have o use traditional indicators as m3 (produced; distributed)/account/month; income (billed; real) /account/month; cost/m3; NRW index; etc. and for environmental or efficient use of water you have to define another set of indicators. Maybe the most comprehensive Water Audit you can have to apply to any water utility is the Aqua Rating developed by the IADB, which includes almost 300 indicators between good practices and results.

  14. Deploy pressure and flow data loggers to straegic locations in the network over say a week.

    Construct an hydraulic network model using any of the commercially available water network analysis software packages. (I use EPANet because its free)

    Massage the model to emulate the field data at any one time will reveal system performance and efficiency. Will reveal bottlenecks.

    Its very labourious and time consuming, but this approach has always yielded good results for me.

    In my opinion, seek expert advice and assistance.

  16. Hi Kudzai.

    At what level are you looking to audit. Is it Agriculture, industry or domestic. Or all three. There are many question before coming up euthanasia suitable answer.


    Regards

    martin

    1 Comment

    1. Hello Martin the audit is for a town and will be including all the three that you have indicated and they have also included a section for institutions. It has also come to my attention that there is limited information which included absence of maps, sewer and water reticulation diagrams. So this has made the work more hectic as most of the work will be to try and trace the lines.