Taking back control with policies that work
In a 2016 article for the IWA’s The Source magazine, Bambos Charalambous, now Chair of the IWA Intermittent Water Supply Specialist Group, highlighted the close link between intermittent supply and water loss. Pressure flux compromises the network’s structural integrity. Pipe and service connection failures increase. Meters malfunction. Illegal connections spread.
The network deteriorates to the point where it is next to impossible to detect and fix leaks, and water contamination leads to poorer water quality and increases risk of water-borne illness, creating public health issues. Customers become less satisfied with their water service, their willingness to pay tariffs (and utility revenues) decline as the utility struggles to conduct maintenance and improve service with lower financial resources. Understanding the negative feedback loop is important ‘It is relatively easy to turn a 24/7 system to an intermittent supply,” says Charalambous, ‘but it is very hard to do the opposite.’
‘Armchair experts’ who claim to know the answers to reducing demand during droughts, but have no real world experience of managing distribution systems in such events, are likely to recommend rota cuts to reduce consumption and leakage. In fact, nothing could be more wasteful and damaging. Fortunately, during recent severe droughts in Sao Paolo and Cape Town, the Utilities had learnt from the experience of others and achieved reduced leakage and consumption by maintaining continuous supplies with pressure management playing a key (but largely unrecognized) role.
In November 2016, at a UK Masterclass by WLRandA Ltd and ILMSS Ltd, experts from Brazil, Colombia, France, Greece, Italy, Jordan, Malta, South Africa, UK and USA with wide experience of intermittent supply in different countries discussed the topic in detail over 4 days, and agreed to contribute papers and other relevant material to a new IWS Info-Hub on the former LEAKSSuite website. In the next year (2017), a new IWA International Intermittent Water Supply Specialist Group was formed, which began to deal with the problems of IWS in a systematic manner, based on practical concepts and approaches which have been proven to work..
As LEAKSSuite Library strongly supports the aims of the IWA IWS Specialist Group, our brief selection of key papers and presentations does not seek to duplicate or compete with the IWA Group, but includes material that you may not find in other publications, which highlights the importance of:
- Using the most appropriate sequence of actions and performance indicators to move from intermittent to continuous supply
- Managing leakage and consumption during droughts, whilst maintaining continuous supply and avoiding rota cuts
- The fundamental role of pressure management in realizing the above two objectives.
In accordance with LEAKSSuite Library philosophy that papers and presentations should be free to all, authors who have not previously assigned copyright of their material have agreed that any of the material in the Library can be downloaded free of charge; our only request is that the source is acknowledged if any part of the material is reproduced elsewhere. Papers that are available free under Open Access arrangements from other websites will also be listed.
We hope the easily accessible information on this website will encourage Utilities with IWS to become involved with the work of the IWA IWS Specialist Group, and eventually achieve (and be able to maintain, even during droughts), the objective of continuous supply. For an Executive Summary Report of the 1st IWS Conference in Kampala, Uganda in April 2019, and further information on that Conference and the activities of the IWS Specialist Group, contact Hassan Aboelnga htolba1@outlook.com or Bambos Charalambous bcharalambous@cytanet.co..cy .
| Source | References | Weblinks |
|---|---|---|
| Charalambous B | The Effect of Intermittent Supply on Water Distribution Networks. Case Study for the EU Reference Document Good Practices on Leakage Management (2015) | Paper |
| Charalambous B | INTERMITTENT WATER SUPPLY: Ten Reasons why it should be Avoided. Arab Water Week and Exhibition, Jordan. March 2017 | Presentation |
| Charalambous B, Liemberger R | Dealing with the complex Interrelation of Intermittent Supply and Water Losses. Paper and Presentation at IWA World Congress, Brisbane, Australia, October 2016 | Paper and Presentation |
| Lambert A, Shepherd M | Consequences of Intermittent Supply on Water Distribution Networks. Back to Basics for a more secure Future Workshop, Durban, South Africa, February 2018 | Presentation |
| Monterde, N | Challenges in moving to 24/7 water supply in Aguas de Saltillo City, Mexico. IWA Water Efficient Conference, Bath, UK, July 2017. | Presentation |
| Peña M, Bazet J.I, Poona V.A | Pressure Management and System Stabilisation: Case Study in eSikhaleni, South Africa. IWA Water Loss 2014 Conference, Vienna, Austria, April 2014. | Presentation |