Browsing by Author "Gwao, Mathew"

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    The role of geographical information system in effective reduction of non-revenue water in Sumbawanga, Tanzania
    (University of Dar es Salaam, 2019) Gwao, Mathew
    Inadequate water services in urban and rural areas are challenges, especially in developing countries. In Tanzania, UWSAs are legally mandated to operate since 1998. However, large amount of water seems to be lost as NRW. The study aimed to apply geographical Information System in identifying the causes of physical and apparent losses contributing to NRW and its reduction in the water distribution network, in selected Sumbawanga urban zones, serviced by SUWASA. Experimental measurements were carried out to obtain data for water flow in the system. The survey methods was used to collect data to determine the factors behind physical and apparent water losses. The analysis was carried out by ArcGIS version 10.4 and SPSS version 20.0.Maps, suc as illegal connection hotspots, pressure distributions, DEM, pipes of poor quality materials, pipes prone to leakages and suitable areas for installing AVRs to reducing NRW caused by pressure were generated. For maintenance and planning of water assets to reduce NRW, Postgres and PostGIS software were used to create geo-database. Letter, the geodatabese was connected to QGIS for visualization. Method for determining NRW quantity has been abstracted from IWA. Experimental results indicate around 8787.6 m3, 10718.3 m3, 14637.1 m3 is consumed in zone A, B, and C respectively per month, while computations results revealed that average of 15.15%, 40.2%, 24.52% of water is lost as NRW contributed by physical and apparent loss for zone A, B, and C respectively within six month period. Spatial and non-spatial analyses on the causes of NRW indicate that high pressure, poor quality of pipe materials and aged pipes were the main factors contributing to physical losses while illegal connections and aged maters of class A and B contribute to apparent losses. It is recommended that ARVs and PRVs should be installed at undulating terrain to reduce water pressure. Timely maintenance of water infrastructure offers profound benefits. For instance, aged pipes should be replaced with new pipes, poor quality pipes replaced with class C pipes for services lines to reduce physical losses, whilst aged meters accounting for apparent losses replaced with new ones.