Page 24 - Water Loss Control
P. 24

6    Cha pte r  T w o



                               Real Losses    Apparent Losses   NRW        Units
                                                                                 3
                Developed         9.8           2.4                12.2    billion m /year
                Countries
                Eurasia (CIS)     6.8            2.9                9.7    billion m /year
                                                                                 3
                Developing       16.1          10.6                26.7    billion m /year
                                                                                 3
                Countries
                                                                                 3
                Total           32.7            15.9               48.6    billion m /year
                Developed      2589            634               3223      billion gal/year
                Countries
                Eurasia (CIS)  1796             766               2562     billion gal/year
                Developing     4253           2800               7053      billion gal/year
                Countries
                Total          8638           4200              12839      billion gal/year

               TABLE 2.1  Global Water Loss Volumes Estimated by the World Bank
                                            the autonomy, the accountability, and the technical and
                                            managerial skills necessary to provide reliable service to
                Did you know that many loca-
                                            their population.
                tions in the United States suffer   Another study conducted by the U.N. Environment pro-
                from periodic water shortages,   gram estimates that by the year 2025, as much as two-thirds
                or project a long-term deficit   of the world population may be subject to moderate to high
                in water supply? Surprisingly,   water stress. The same study estimates that water with-
                there are no federal regulations   drawal as percentage of the total water available will rise in
                governing how much water a   the United States from 10 to 20% (as of 1995) to between 20
                                            and 40%.  This demonstrates the growing stress on water
                                                    3
                supplier can lose!
                                            resources globally and in the United States and the urgent
                                            need to apply proactive water loss management.
                                                There are more than 55,000 community water systems
                                            in the United States alone, which process nearly 34 billion
                There are 55,000 community   gal water per day.  Due to the current lack of standard
                                                            4
                water systems in the United   assessment and reporting methods for water losses, it is
                States alone, water losses are   difficult to quantify the amount of water lost in U.S. distri-
                suspected to be around 6 bil-  bution systems. The U.S. Geological Survey estimates that
                                                                  5
                lion gal a day!             almost 6 billion gal/day  of the total 34 billion gal pro-
                                            cessed a day are approximated to occur as “public uses
                                            and losses,” with the losses likely much greater than pub-
                                            lic use for most systems.  Inaccuracies or inconsistencies in
                                            the reported data also contribute to the difference between
                The amount of water lost in
                                            the total water delivered and total consumed. The amount
                the United States is more than
                                            of water lost in the United States is more than enough to
                enough to meet the delivery  meet the delivery needs of the 10 largest cities in the
                needs of the country’s 10   United States. This massive waste of resources should be
                largest cities!             viewed as a considerable concern for the country with the
                                            third largest population in the world.
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