Technical performance indicators, IWA best practice for water mains and the first steps in Serbia

Active water loss management has became one of the primary interest of the water utilities in the world. It can make significant saves and investments in new water resources capturing can be justified only if appropriate action is done to minimize loss from the water main. There is some level of unavoidable water loss from the water main. Traditional indicator of water loss, widely adopted in the world, was % of the system input value. It always sounds well to have water loss less than some prescribed value (for instance 10%). Due to efforts of IWA Task Force in the last decade, this approach has been proven to be misleading in may cases, and new way of performance measuring and benchmarking is proposed. This paper presents the basic principles of this methodology and the results of the first step in attempt to approach Serbian water mains to the new standards