Pipe Characteristics Influence on Burst Incidence and Non-Revenue Water

Abstract

NRW may result from unbilled water consumption, unauthorized use, meter inaccuracies, data handling errors, or pipe or storage tank leakages. NRW is undesirable as it is a stumbling block to sustainable water management. NRW is a worldwide issue. The government of Malaysia has set the target of reducing NRW down to 25% by the year 2030. Therefore, this study aims to establish a relationship between pipe burst cases and NRW.  Characteristics of pipes that influence pipe bursts were also investigated. Records of pipe burst cases, and NRW of districts of Tangkak and Muar within 5 years, i.e. from 2018 to 2022 were used to obtain a regression relationship. Analyses have shown that 45.2% to 52.9% of pipe burst cases involved pipes with a size of 150 mm. Pipe with a diameter of 100 mm contributed to 32.4% to 37.6% of the burst cases. These pipes are located after the service tanks, i.e., within the reticulation system. 150 mm pipe and 100 mm pipe materials are primarily of MS and GI. The rate of NRW can be estimated based on the number of pipe burst cases BC, where NRW = 7.08BC + 108.7. The rate of NRW is sevenfold that of the number of pipe burst cases. The R-squared shows that the relationship represented 64.93% of the 5-year data. These results highlighted that pipe burst/leakage is one of the leading causes of NRW generation. Further studies can be conducted to determine whether the pipe's location (e.g., subject to traffic loading or the effect of soil characteristics) also plays a vital role in burst cases.