Return on Investment in NRW reduction!

Achieved results, underlying approaches and contributing factors to success of 8 Non-Revenue Water (NRW) reduction interventions (2012-2019) of 19 water operators from Asia and Africa are presented in this Practice Note.

The document builds on the joint review commissioned by the Netherlands Enterprise Agency (RVO) – Sustainable Water Fund (SWF) and executed by Ad Doppenberg – Advisory Services in Water and Reint-Jan de Blois – VEI. Its conclusions and recommendations can assist practitioners in designing and implementing future NRW programmes.

To assess the up-scaling potential, reduced NRW volumes in District Metered Areas (covering 435,000 connections) were translated to cost savings and revenue increments (based on the established commercial/physical losses ratio) to evaluate the business case.

The Practice Note also evaluates the extent in which NRW-reduction can effectively contribute to improving service delivery to the urban poor.

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