Clean treated water is priceless. Air Selangor is committed in ensuring that the treated water in its system can be distributed to the 8.4 consumers in Selangor, Kuala Lumpur dan Putrajaya without wastage.
Its goal is to reduce its Non-Revenue Water (NRW) rate to 25% in 2025, and 15% by 2049.
Through strategic planning and implementation of several initiatives, especially in-house initiatives, since 2017, Air Selangor has over the years successfully reduced its NRW in a more effective and consistent manner.
In the year 2020, Air Selangor successfully reduced the average rate of its NRW to 28.6% compared with an average rate of 29.7% in 2019. This achievement surpassed the target of 29.2% set by the Suruhanjaya Perkhidmatan Air Negara (SPAN) – by 220%, to be precise. Air Selangor managed to exceed the target set despite the challenges it faced in implementing on-site work on the back of the COVID-19 pandemic and the Movement Control Order (MCO) which affected the progress of work planned.
While a decrease of 1.1 percentage point may look small, it actually translates to 43 million litres per day (MLD) of treated water. That’s equivalent to 43 million bottles of 1 litre clean treated water saved every day!
What is Non-Revenue Water?
Non-Revenue Water (NRW) is treated water “lost” en route to users. Among the many factors that could cause this loss are:
Water loss due to leaking or broken piping
Faulty meters – meters that are either out of order, or sabotaged
Theft, or “illegal” connection before the meters to siphon water without payment to the water provider.
The loss of treated water is not just revenue loss for Air Selangor, but also a waste of the precious commodity.
Initiatives taken in 2020 to reduce NRW
In 2020, Air Selangor spent RM255 million to reduce its NRW rate through the implementation of various initiatives. They include:
1- Air Selangor’s Leak Specialist (LS) and Leak Inspector (LI) team detected more than 90 thousand cases of leaking pipes within its pipeline network in Selangor, Kuala Lumpur, and Putrajaya. Air Selangor currently has a team of 54 LS and 133 LI.
2- Implementation of Active Leakage Control Programme, District Meter Zone Establishment Programme, and Old Pipe Replacement Programme. The implementation of these programmes reduced burst pipe incidents by 51%, from 5,398 cases in 2017 to 2,620 cases in 2020. As a result, Air Selangor recorded a Pipe Burst Index (PBI) of 8 burst pipe cases per 100 km per year, ahead of the international PBI benchmark of 13 burst pipe cases per 100 km per year.
3- Air Selangor has also installed a total of 1,650 transient pressure sensors on the main pipes to detect leaks much earlier, enabling repair works to be carried out immediately. At the same time, the sensors help to prevent the main pipes from bursting and causing water supply disruption. This technology is also used by water operators in developed countries such as Singapore, Australia, and the United Arab Emirates (UAE).
4- The use of Permanent Leak Noise Correlating Logger that is capable of detecting leaks in its reticulation pipe system at all times, 24 hours a day. With this online monitoring system, leaks within the pipe system would be swiftly detected and flagged, facilitating immediate corrective action. As at end-2020, a total of 1,640 permanent leak detectors have been installed in 36 District Metering Zones.
What’s in store for 2021
Air Selangor remains committed to achieving further NRW reduction this year and has set aside an allocation of RM293 million towards it – RM170 million for its Old Pipe Replacement Programme to replace old and critical pipes, and RM16 million for the replacement of old and damaged meters.
Air Selangor urges anyone witnessing or having knowledge of any incident of pipe leak/burst, illegal pipe connections, and meter manipulation by irresponsible individuals to alert Air Selangor at its Contact Centre at 15300, mobile application, official social media page, or official website www.airselangor.com.
