URBAN WATER LOSSES MANAGEMENT IN TURKEY: THE LEGISLATION and CHALLENGES

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Water losses from water distribution networks (WDNs) have become a crucial problem in many countries such as Turkey, where country average non-revenue water (NRW) is almost 45% of system input volume (SIV). Municipalities are responsible for water supply in Turkey but only a few of them have started to improve their WDNs for management of water losses and provide good application examples; whereas many of the other municipalities have no activities to reduce water losses. The Turkish Ministry of Forestry and Water Affairs issued a new directive to control and reduce water losses from WDNs recently. With the issue of the new directive, all municipalities are now obliged to reduce water losses in WDNs within a given time frame. This paper represents a discussion and evaluation for the contents of the new Turkish directive on water losses management for the first time. Moreover, other existing guidelines and some country practices are presented to provide recommendations for the management of urban water losses. Reduction of water losses contributes directly to protection of water quality in WDNs and public health.