Page 280 - Water Loss Control

Contr olling Appar ent Losses—Unauthorized Consumption 249

found to be representative of this component of loss in water audits compiled worldwide.
For water utilities with well-established water audits, or those believing that unauthorized
consumption is excessive, individual components of unauthorized consumption should be
specifically identified, as well as policies and practices that may, unwittingly, create oppor-
tunities to obtain water service without making proper payment for the service.
If the auditor believes that unauthorized consumption is significant in his utility, and
time and resources are available to investigate, then work to quantify individual compo-
nents of authorized consumption can be carried out. This work can be tedious, however,
and the auditor should use good judgment to determine whether the extra effort to obtain
specific estimates of unauthorized consumption is worthwhile compared to merely
applying the default value. Once the water auditing process matures over a period of
years, some reasonable effort should be dedicated to investigation of specific occurrences
of unauthorized consumption in the water utility. Still, in most cases, the default value
gives a reasonable quantification of unauthorized consumption.

15.3 Controlling Unauthorized Consumption
As previously discussed, unauthorized consumption can occur in many ways. For vir-
tually all water utilities, some portion of the customer population will attempt to obtain
water service without properly paying for it. However, the extent to which such occur-
rences exist also depends upon the policies, practices, and oversight of the water utility.
Water utilities exert control over unauthorized consumption via
• Detection—the ability to become aware of unauthorized consumption in its
various manners
• Enforcement—means to halt such consumption and invoke appropriate
penalties
Water utilities should have mechanisms in place to detect trends of unauthorized
consumption. As an example, the auditor might review opportunities for the unauthor-
ized use of fire hydrants and ensure that a rational policy regarding fire hydrants exists.
Flowcharting the processes of the customer billing system (as described in Chap. 14)
can give the auditor insight into loopholes that allow unauthorized consumption to
occur and go unnoticed by the water utility. Once identified, loopholes can often be
expeditiously closed by procedural, programming, or permitting corrections, realizing
a quick return of additional revenue. Billing data should be reviewed for suspicious
trends that might reflect unauthorized consumption. For instance, active accounts reg-
istering unchanged meter readings (zero consumption) for consecutive billing cycles
might be an indication of meter tampering. Household inspections can be conducted on
select zero consumption accounts to determine whether actual consumption is occur-
ring. Boundary valves to neighboring water systems should be inspected periodically
to ensure that they are in the proper position. If utility policy allows customer service to
be terminated due to payment delinquency, follow-up random inspections should be
conducted on a sample of accounts to ensure that customers have not reactivated their
service illegally. Customer meter tampering can be cost-effectively controlled by lock-
ing devices that are now commercially available at competitive prices for all sizes and
configurations of customer meters. All of these actions are typical of the bottom-up
activities utilities can undertake to control unauthorized consumption.