Maximising the benefits of desalination

Water shortages are caused by various factors, including extreme shortages of rainfall and increased demand. This paper deals with water conservation relating in particular to the reduction of leakage. Non Revenue Water, especially in cases where desalinated water is introduced into a water system. Desalination is a significant investment by an organisation and therefore it is most important to maximise the benefits of such investment.

Demand forecasts for both MKW and WBL show a steady increase over the coming years and leakage reduction strategies as outlined above will go a long way towards offsetting this demand increase. It is important to appreciate, that any leakage/NRW strategy is a “non-stop” activity, which needs to be embraced fully by the organisation at the highest level and throughout the workforce, in order to be able to reduce the amount of water lost and maintain NRW at an economic level. We believe that both of the above organisations have achieved a great deal over the years, as can be seen from Figs. 1 and 2 and these results compare very favourably with NRW levels in other major organisations around the world, as can be seen in Fig. 3. It is clear, that the implementation of an appropriate NRW strategy within any water supply organisation, can greatly contribute towards more efficient and effective management of the available water resources, especially in parts of the world where water scarcity is a problem.