ASSESSMENT OF WATER LOSSES IN DISTRIBUTION SYSTEM (THE CASE OF KOMBOLCHA TOWN, ETHIOPIA)

Abstract

Kombolcha is one of the rapidly growing towns in Ethiopia. Problems of adequate water supplies and reduction of non-revenue water remains one of the major challenges facing Kombolcha water supply system. This study is focus to assess the total water loss in the distribution network using water audit software V 5.0 and domestic water supply coverage using Mathematical analysis. A Mathematical analysis was applied to analyze the current domestic water supply coverage of the entire town. And also water meter test was conducted for samples from each brand of meters installed in the distribution system of the town in order to quantify the water loss through meters of under registration. Water audit software was also used to analyze water loss components and the efficiency of the system was evaluated using different performance indicators. Discussions were made with Local experts‟ to support the quantitative analysis. From the result of the analysis, it was identified that the average daily per capital water consumption of the town is 44.03 liter/person/day. Nearly 26% of the total water production is lost at different level of distribution system before reaching to the town consumer. The main reasons for the high loss of water in Kombolcha water supply system use poor maintenance and insufficient financial resources of the utility.