SHAH ALAM, Feb 4 — Pengurusan Air Selangor Sdn Bhd (Air Selangor) has reduced non-revenue water (NRW), which is treated water that is “lost” before it reaches customers, to 28.73 per cent in 2019
This was a decrease of 1.78 per cent compared to the previous year’s 30.51 per cent.
Its chief executive officer Suhaimi Kamaralzaman said the significant reduction had exceeded Air Selangor’s target for 2019 which was set at 29.5 per cent.
In a statement on January 31, Suhaimi said the reduction was achieved through intensive planning and continuous implementation of in-house initiatives since 2017. Over the period of three years, he said the NRW was reduced by 2.79 per cent, from 31.52 per cent to 28.73 per cent.
“Based on these records, Air Selangor is positive that the annual reduction of the NRW by one per cent can be achieved in the following years.
“The drop of NRW by 1.78 per cent in 2019 is a large amount, which is equivalent to 4.65 million litres per day, 11,754 water tankers per day, or 26 Olympic sized pools. The reduction had contributed in operational cost savings of RM35.4 million,” Suhaimi said in the statement on January 31.
He said the successful reduction was also contributed by Air Selangor’s success in reducing pipe burst incidents. Such cases saw a decrease of 28 per cent last year, with a total of 2,787 cases in 2019 compared to 3,871 cases in the previous year, in which 295 were caused by third party.
“This shows that in 2019, Air Selangor had made good progress as only nine pipe bursts were recorded per 100 kilometres, compared to the international guideline for Pipe Burst Index of 13 pipe burst cases per 100 kilometres per year.
In 2019, there was an increase in identifying pipe leaks, in which Suhaimi said was a positive outcome on the leak detection programme implemented internally by Air Selangor.
A total of 108,759 leakages was detected as compared to 104,033 cases in 2018.
Suhaimi said the water loss rate was successfully reduced through the installation of sensors on the main pipes, which enables the monitoring of water pressure and detecting pressure transient. The data obtained from the Smart Operation Control Centre would ensure that pipe repair works are more proactively carried out.
Additionally, the SCADA system and Data Logger are also used to monitor and control the overflow of water levels in 1,601 reservoirs and 731 pump houses.
The replacement of 318,839 old and damaged water meter last year had also successfully prevented commercial loss caused by inaccurate meter readings.
Meanwhile, Suhaimi said the cooperation between Air Selangor and the National Water Services Commission (SPAN) had contributed to preventing water theft activities from illegal tapping by irresponsible parties.
A total of RM171.63 million has been allocated for NRW reduction and replacement of water meters in 2020, as compared to RM164 million in 2019. Another RM144.5 million was allocated for old pipes and replacement works of frequent pipe bursts, in comparison to the RM161.9 million allocation in 2019 for 168.34 kilometres pipe replacement.
“Air Selangor is confident that the ongoing initiatives and programmes to reduce NRW will continue to lower the NRW by the end of the year,” said Suhaimi.
