Investigating the Total Losses of Water in the Entire Drinking Water Supply System: The Case of Debre Tabor Town, Ethiopia

Safe and adequate drinking water is the most vital human rights and necessities, it is critical for life and economic activities, but drinking water shortage is the primary cause of livelihoods and economic crisis because of drastic water losses in the water supply system. This study aimed to investigate the current crucial issue of drinking water losses in the entire water supply system using water meter at the source of supply, at the transfer pump station and at the water demand areas for Debre Tabor Town, Ethiopia. Therefore, the total volume of water loss in the transmission pipelines was covered 33.32% and distribution network has 27.96% water lose. Therefore, an average losses of water in the town is not recommended. And, increased by one cubic meter in one unit increase of water production at the source due to poor operations and maintenances in the pipelines. However, it could be reduced by one cubic meter through one unit increasing of water at the transfer pumps and at the distribution reservoirs by the means of proper operations and maintenance of transmission and /or the distribution pipelines. Therefore, due to this drastic water losses, the maximum numbers of households were supplied pipe water once per 15 days and cluster two supplied in 20 days. Keywords : loss, billed water, unbilled water, authorized water and NRW. DOI: 10.7176/CER/13-1-03 Publication date: January 31 st 2021