Integrated approach to reducing drinking water losses in the distribution networks in the city of Sebastopol

Summary

The natural scarcity of water resources coupled with a high degree of deterioration of water supply systems result in a tense situation with the drinking water supply in Crimea. Over the past few years, a number of programs of upgrading the peninsula’s water industry have been developed and are being implemented in order to solve the problem at the regional and federal levels. One of the key objectives of these programs is to reduce water losses that currently reach 40–60%. A set of measures aimed at reducing water losses in Sebastopol is described. The set of measures developed in accordance with the international experience and Russian recommendations takes into account the current condition of the Crimean water supply system. The activities include designing an advanced network management complex, zoning of the water supply network, pressure regulation, monitoring and elimination of leaks. Based on the results of the analysis of the performance indicators, it was determined that the priority measure for Sebastopol was the introduction of an advanced acoustic monitoring system in the water distribution networks that would provide for detecting effectively latent leaks and saving the city thousands of cubic meters of scarce drinking water. The results of a pilot project on the inspection of 5 km of the water supply networks using the acoustic monitoring system are described.

Key words

hidden leak search , water supply optimization , water scarcity , reducing drinking water losses and unaccounted-for-water , failure rate analysis , pressure control in the network , monitoring and diagnostics of the water distribution networks