Evaluation of water losses in distribution networks: Rammallah as a case study

Abstract

Water is one of the most valuable natural resources in Palestine. Therefore, it is very crucial for the Palestinians to achieve proper planning and management of their water resources to ensure proper usage of their water in the different sectors. Moreover, many of the Palestinian localities still lack the existence of water networks while many others suffer from the poor conditions and high losses in their networks that reach up to 50% of the input into the supply system. The paper will present a method to determine water losses from distribution networks and procedures of reducing it in a practical way. The method is based on three main steps: (1) tracing leaks of the supply districts or pipe sections by means of tightness tests and measuring minimum night flow; (2) pinpointing the leaks using the electro-acoustic techniques by DF Junior device and (3) repairing leaks. Consequently, the amount of leakage for the study area was largely reduced (from 5.6 L/sec to 0.16 L/sec).