Non-Revenue Water Reduction Programs in Colombia: Methodology Analysis using a System Dynamics Approach

Abstract

All across the world there are concerns about water availability that inviteutilities to perform better as water stewards. One of the ways to get a betterperformance, both operational and financial, is to reduce water losses. Infact, the utilities should not just compare water produced to water sold, butthey should be aware of the importance of implementing water loss reductionprograms as clean water is becoming a scarce resource and conservation isneeded. This is why water industries are now recognizing the need tominimize water loss.The objective of this work is to provide methodological elements to analysecommercial water losses in Colombian Water Utilities based on a systemdynamics approach. A model will be developed to study the impacts comingfrom different policies which are created to reduce water losses (measured byan index called Non Revenue Water1) in the residential sector.In the context of this research, the System Dynamics model can ease theunderstanding of interactions and causal relations underlying the water lossproblem among the clients, the company and the surrounding environment.In addition, the model will be used to analyse different policies to investigatethe effectiveness of water loss reduction programs in colombian utilities.Keywords: Non Revenue Water, System Dynamics, Fraud, Water Loss