Page 185 - Water Loss Control

Contr olling Appar ent Losses—Capturing Missing Revenue and Data Integrity 159

• Data analysis errors
• Use of poorly estimated volumes in lieu of meter readings
• Customer billing adjustments granted by manipulating actual metered
consumption data
• Poor customer account management: accounts not activated, lost, or
transferred erroneously
• Policy and procedure shortcomings
• Despite policies for universal customer metering, certain customers are
intentionally left unmeasured or unread. This is common for municipally
owned buildings in water utilities run by local governments.
• Provisions allowing customer accounts to enter “nonbilled” status, a
potential loophole often exploited by fraud, or unmonitored due to poor
management.
• Adjustment policies that do not take into account preservation of actual
customer consumption.
• Bureaucratic regulations or performance lapses that cause delays in
permitting, metering, or billing operations.
• Organizational divisions or tensions within the utility that do not recognize
the importance or “big picture” of water loss control.

The above list provides but a few of the data-handling problems that might be
encountered in a drinking water utility. It is not exhaustive, however, and almost any
utility might identify an apparent loss situation that is unique to their organization.
Any action that unduly modifies the actual amount of customer consumption can be
considered an apparent loss. The IWA Water Loss Task Force did not specifically iden-
tify data-handling error as a source of apparent loss during the initial work published
4
by Alegre et al. ; however subsequent articles published by IWA and AWWA clearly
define this category. The AWWA Water Loss Control Committee considers such manip-
ulations of data as apparent losses. 5

11.5 Unauthorized Consumption
Unauthorized consumption occurs in virtually all drinking water utilities. It typically
occurs through the deliberate actions of customers or other persons who take water
from the system without paying for it. The nature and extent of unauthorized consump-
tion in a system depends on the economic health of the community and the emphasis
that the water utility places on policy and enforcement.
Unauthorized consumption occurs in many ways, including tampering of customer
meters or meter-reading equipment, illegal openings of fire hydrants, illicit connec-
tions, and sundry other means. Establishing the key features of a good accountability
and loss control program—water auditing being foremost—will inevitably uncover
situations where unauthorized consumption is occurring.
The water audit should quantify the component of unauthorized consumption
occurring in the utility. For first-time water audits, or where unauthorized consumption
is not believed to be excessive, the auditor should use the default value of 0.25% of the
water supplied value in the water audit. This percentage has been found to be representa-
tive of this component of loss in water audits compiled worldwide. For water utilities