The Ingenieur Vol 59 July-Sept 2014 The Ingenieur Vo. 59, July-Sept 2014 | Page 74

INGENIEUR

Diagram 1
population now has access to an improved water
source compared with 85% in 1990.
In 2003, the federal government decided
to embark on a sector reform. The objective
was to make the sector more efficient, to create
sustainable funding mechanisms and to improve
the customer orientation of service provision. The
sector reform was enacted in 2006. One of the
issues addressed through the sector reform is Non
Revenue Water (NRW).
NRW activities have been carried out in
Malaysia since the 80s. The national average NRW
level currently stands at approximately 36% which
equates to 1.9 billion cubic meters wastage of
treated water or RM 2.2 billion losses in potential
revenue to water operators. The sector reform,
through the National Water Services Commission,
targets further reduction in the level of national
NRW by the year 2020. However, it is important to
note that level of NRW cannot be reduced to zero
since it would be too expensive and uneconomical
to achieve. Therefore, an economic level of NRW
has to be determined and set as the target.
An NRW reduction programme involves
a series of activities beginning with the
measurement of the production volume, controlling
physical losses (leaks, bursts, overflows etc) and
addressing the commercial losses (incorrect
billing, faulty customer meters, water theft etc).
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The system input volume or simply the
production volume, together with customer billings
are the two most important bases of an