Page 19 - Water Loss Control

CHAPTER 1

Introduction

Julian Thornton

Reinhard Sturm
George Kunkel, P.E.

1.1 Background
The world’s population exploded during the twentieth century. At the close of the year
2000 approximately 6 billion inhabitants called the planet earth home, up from 4 billion
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in 1974. That such growth could occur is a testament to man’s unique ability to provide
the essentials of clean air, water, food, and health
care to its masses. However, during the latter half of
the same century, man also recognized that the As of February 2008, the
world’s resources couldn’t continue to sustain this world population was estimated
rate of growth indefinitely; at least, not by using the to be approximately 6.6 billion!
same methods to which we have become accustomed.
Our resources are finite.
The availability of safe water has been a major contributing factor in the growth of
the world’s population, by serving man’s drinking water and sanitation needs. The
ability to create large water supply systems to abstract or withdraw, treat, and transport
vital water to whole communities’ fingertips stands as one of history’s great engineering
marvels. Yet notable caveats exist to this success story. Many developing countries still
do not have the water supply infrastructure to provide clean water to individual
customers; or to supply it on a continuous basis. In such places, modern water systems
are lacking due to the same social, political, and economic complexities that challenge
all aspects of development in these lands. While these populations struggle to gain
basic levels of service, many highly developed water systems, in technologically
advanced countries, suffer an insidious problem that threatens the long-term
sustainability of water resources for the future—water loss. Most of the world’s water
systems, or undertakings, have been highly successful in delivering high-quality water
to large populations. However, most of these systems have done so with a notable
amount of water loss occurring in their operations. In years past, the seemingly infinite
supply of water in expanding “new worlds” allowed water loss to be largely overlooked.
With water readily available and relatively inexpensive, losses have been ignored by
water utilities, or assumed to be naturally inherent in operating a water supply system.

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