Every year about 194 million cubic meters (1.94 billion liters) are lost in the pipes of urban water supply, according to data from the Water and Waste Service Regulatory Authority (ERSAR), cited by Expresso (in this week’s print edition).
These losses represent about a quarter of the volume of water withdrawn for human consumption, and does not take into account the 35% losses in agriculturewhich consumes 70% of the water extracted in Portugal, nor 30% of the volume of water that enters the supply systems and is not billed.
Dry. Government recommends increasing water rates in most affected municipalities
Not taking losses is virtually impossible, but reducing losses to 15% (1,230 million liters per year) would already allow the supply of saved water to 865 thousand inhabitantsaccording to the calculations of Jaime Melo Baptista, former president of ERSAR and current president of the Lisbon International Water Center.
“The solution to the problem of real and unbilled water losses goes through the combination of an improvement in the governance of the managing entities, an improvement in the patrimonial management of the infrastructures and an adequate rate policy”, says Melo Batista. In other words, to improve the performance of the managing entities, invest in the repair and maintenance of water supply networks and install meters to reduce the amount of non-revenue water.
“When you see me, cry.” The stone of hunger in sight, the source of the Thames 8 km away and rivers without water: the drought affects all of Europe
Source: Observadora
