Management of Water Losses in Water Supply and Distribution Networks in Turkey

Abstract

Water losses in water supply and distribution systems have been a serious problem in Turkey and all over the world causing economic costs and environmental drawbacks. Total water losses is the summation of real (physical) and apparent (commercial) losses. Main activities to reduce water losses include digitizing the components of network using Geographical Information Systems (GIS), dividing large water distribution networks (WDNs) into District Metered Areas (DMAs), monitoring, carrying out yearly water balance, hydraulic modelling, pressure management, active leakage control, recording water consumption of the users, reducing meter errors and illegal water consumption. The Ministry of Forestry and Water Affairs in Turkey issued a new regulation for water losses reduction in 2014 based on the methods used to determine and reduce the losses. This is followed by issuing practical description of the technical procedure to reduce the losses in 2015. The new legislation aims to reduce total water losses in all water authorities below 25% within certain time periods. All the water authorities are required to carry out yearly water balance and report them to the ministry together with forms to follow up the efforts towards water losses reduction. In order to apply the prescribed techniques in a successful way, first of all water losses problem should be understood well, technical and human resource capacity should be improved, and sufficient financial resources should be allocated. Also, the water utilities should have a strategic plan and a strong commitment to reduce water losses.