Air Selangor aims to reduce NRW by 0.5 pct this year

KUALA LUMPUR: Pengurusan Air Selangor Sdn Bhd (Air Selangor) aims to reduce the average rate of non-revenue water (NRW) by 0.5 per cent to 28.1 per cent this year compared to 28.6 per cent last year.

Chief executive officer Suhaimi Kamaralzaman said Air Selangor had allocated RM293 million this year to achieve the objective and various initiatives would be implemented including detecting at least 78,000 cases of leaking pipes on distribution pipelines in the Active Leakage Control Program.

“Air Selangor is optimistic and will continue to actively work to lower the NRW rate this year. This initiative has proven to be successful for three consecutive years, namely a consistent reduction in the NRW rate based on a target of one per cent decrease each year.

Of the total allocation (RM293 million), we have allocated RM170 million for the critical Old Pipe Replacement Program, while RM16 million for the replacement of old and damaged meters.

"Air Selangor will establish a total of 75 District Metering Zones (DMZs) in the DMZ Establishment Program besides replacing old and obsolete pipes, especially the 150-kilometre asbestos cement type through the Old Pipe Replacement Program," he said in a virtual press conference today.

He said this year they would continue to install 1,780 sensors on the main pipes to detect transient pressure and leakage at an early stage; as well as using 3,000 Permanent Leak Noise Correlating Loggers on reticulation pipes in 60 DMZs.

He said Air Selangor has managed to record a decrease in the NRW rate of 1.1 per cent in 2020, to 28.6 per cent compared to 29.7 per cent in 2019.

"Significantly this decrease means that the loss of treated water in the distribution system has been reduced by 43 million litres per day, which is equivalent to 43 million bottles of water measuring one litre per day.

"This savings is also equivalent to the total production of one of our medium-sized treatment plants, the Wangsa Maju water treatment plant, which produces about 38 million litres a day," he said.

He said the achievement (1.1 per cent) exceeded the target of 29.2 per cent set by the National Water Services Commission (SPAN) despite facing the implementation of the Movement Control Order following the COVID-19 pandemic.

Suhaimi said Air Selangor was determined to further reduce the NRW rate to 25 per cent by 2025 and further to 15 per cent by 2049.

-- BERNAMA