Page 51 - Water Loss Control

What is Necessary to Contr ol the W ater Loss Pr oblem? 33

and costlier due to enhanced water quality and environmental protections, coupled
with funding constraints. Despite these pressures, water loss policy is still not ade-
quately addressed at the national level even though the water saved through reduction
of water loss represents one of the least expensive new sources of water.
The term water accountability has been used casually in the United States for the last
several decades to label a variety of activities that impact the delivery efficiency of water
utilities. Historically in the United States, water accountability practices (unaccounted-
for water percentages) have existed more as art than science, with methods often
generating as much confusion as explanation in interpreting water loss conditions.
Symptomatically, this confusion stemmed from
inconsistent terminology, unreliable percentage
measures, and a lack of procedures to rationally No consistent national meth-
evaluate and compare water loss performance. On a ods are employed in the United
broader level; however, outdated water account-
States to quantify water loss
ability methods are a weak discipline due to the lack
of awareness of the extent of water loss occurring in accurately—however, there are
strong signs of change in a
the United States. Lacking recognition is a signifi-
cant concern for many water industry stakeholders, number of state and regional
no national agenda exists for water utilities to reli- governments!
ably quantify or control their losses.
Conversely, the field of water conservation has become a well-structured discipline in
a number of states; achieving considerable success in limiting unnecessary water con-
sumption; particularly in the dry regions of the country where significant population
growth is occurring and water is both limited and expensive. Water conservation
focuses largely on water reductions by the end user by improving usage efficiency and
reducing waste. It has achieved recognition at the
national level with legislation in place that sets
requirements for household water appliances and
other water uses. The National Alliance for Water The success of many water
Efficiency is launching, with the support of the conservation efforts in the
United States Environmental Protection Agency United States sets the stage
(USEPA), a multitude of successful regional water for improved structures to
conservation efforts on a national scale. USEPA has motivate water loss control;
also recently launched its WaterSense Program and
particularly since water loss
water appliances are sold with a WaterSense label,
just as appliances have carried an EnergyStar energy management offers the ability
to supplement conservation
efficiency rating for many years. Unfortunately,
supply side losses occurring due to leakage and savings many times over with
poor accounting by water utilities are often many the often high volume savings
times greater than the end-user savings achieved potential of water loss recovery.
through conservation; yet are still not adequately
recognized.

4.2.1 Cultural Attitudes
2
Americans are the world’s consumers. As shown in Fig. 4.1, their water consumption
ranks them as the world’s highest per capita water users, when assessing source water
withdrawals for all uses: including the majority uses of power generation and agricul-
ture, in addition to drinking water supply. The authors would like to mention that the