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Water Pipe Networks Performance Assessment: Benchmarking Eight Cases Across the EU Mediterranean Basin

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An Erratum to this article was published on 24 April 2014

Abstract

The high level of the non-revenue water (NRW: water not generating revenues) is a well-acknowledged problem water utilities are straggling with in areas facing water scarcity. High NRW values jeopardize the sustainability of water utilities, especially in cases, where these values exceed 50 % of the System Input Volume. WATERLOSS project developed a Decision Support System to help water utility managers design the most effective/efficient NRW reduction strategy. The project’s first step was to evaluate the performance of the water distribution systems selected as case studies. The paper presents the respective results of eight cases from Cyprus, Greece, Italy, France and Spain, based on a modified International Water Association Water Balance adapted to the water pricing practices met across the Mediterranean (high Fixed Charge included in the water tariffs). The results revealed that although almost all cases experience high NRW levels, the high Fixed Charge reduces the actual revenue losses, thus providing a perfect excuse to the managers of the local water utilities do almost nothing to address the actual extent of the NRW problem in their systems.

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Acknowledgments

This work is part of an ERDF Co-financed MED project (WATERLOSS-2G-MED09-445).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Civil Engineering Department, University of Thessaly, Pedion Areos, 38334 , Volos, Greece

    Vasilis Kanakoudis & Stavroula Tsitsifli

  2. Food Technology Department, Technological Education Institute of Thessaloniki, Sindos, 57400 , Thessaloniki, Greece

    Petros Samaras

  3. Chemistry Department, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, 54124 , Thessaloniki, Greece

    Anastasios I. Zouboulis

Authors
  1. Vasilis Kanakoudis
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  2. Stavroula Tsitsifli
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  3. Petros Samaras
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  4. Anastasios I. Zouboulis
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Correspondence to Stavroula Tsitsifli.

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Kanakoudis, V., Tsitsifli, S., Samaras, P. et al. Water Pipe Networks Performance Assessment: Benchmarking Eight Cases Across the EU Mediterranean Basin. Water Qual Expo Health 7, 99–108 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12403-014-0113-y

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12403-014-0113-y

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