MUSCAT: Nama Water Services (NWS), the state-owned integrated water and wastewater utility of the Sultanate of Oman, is deploying drone and satellite imaging technologies to address prodigious losses occurring in water transmission networks accounting for around 40 per cent of total potable water production.
Of total water production of 444.44 million m3 in 2022, non-revenue water (NRW) – encompassing technical and commercial water losses – amounted to 180.7 million m3, representing a significant 40.7 per cent share. This compares with a 41.82 per cent share in 2021, entailing an incremental improvement of 1.12 per cent that Nama Water Services seeks to build on through intensive loss detection and redressal strategies.
“The Company exerted significant efforts to reduce water loss in 2022,” said Eng Omar al Wahaibi, Chairman – Board of Directors. “It took rigorous measures such as billing unbilled units, replacing faulty meters, regular preventive maintenance, quick response to reports involving visible leak repair, and introducing new technologies to locate network leaks. The aforementioned technologies include unmanned aerial vehicles (drones) fitted with thermal imaging cameras and satellite applications. The Company was successful in rehabilitating crumbling network lines where leak and interruption reports were frequent,” he added in the company’s 2022 Annual Report.
Qais bin Saud al Zakwani, CEO, added: “Water loss reduction is one of the Company’s strategic goals.
The commercial loss associated with billing and meter faults dropped by 1.67 per cent compared to 2021. The total technical-related loss of water also dropped as a result of the network leak control during the year by 1.33 per cent compared to 2021.
This was made possible by the team’s continued effort, including the monitoring of central meters that are known to have repeated leaks and disruptions, rehabilitation of old networks, introduction of the latest technologies for water leak detection like drones, and the use of satellites. On the other hand, the Company adopted several measures to minimize the issuance of estimated and zero bills which helped to alleviate water loss by billing unbilled units and replacing faulty meters.”
While some water loss is inevitable during transportation through the company’s massive piped networks, dedicated teams have been established to detect and reduce those losses, says Nama Water Services (previously known as Oman Water & Wastewater Services Company). Part of this effort is being enabled by analyzing the performance of District Meter Areas (DMA) levels and rehabilitating low-performing ones.
Further, to supplement this effort, the company has deployed drones equipped with multispectral and infrared cameras designed to pinpoint water leakages in large and inaccessible areas where current ground methods, like the acoustic survey, are not effective.
Additionally, satellite-based water leak detection technology is used to identify water leaks based on the analysis of radar satellite imagery to define leakages down to 3 metres below ground, it added.
Nama Water oversees dedicated networks for water distribution, wastewater collection, transportation, wastewater treatment, supply, and disposal of treated effluent, serving an estimated 4 million people. It has a customer base of around 896,000 accounts for water and wastewater services.
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