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ERRU report: Consolidation of water pipes reduced operating costs, but 65% of water in the country is wasted

2024-08-14 09:18:00, Aktualitet CNA

ERRU report: Consolidation of water pipes reduced operating costs, but 65% of

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The union of water pipes in the country, a reform that started in 2022 and is still ongoing, has given the first positive effects according to the Water Regulatory Body. In the performance report published by ERRU, it is estimated that almost all have reduced operating and maintenance costs.

"Financial performance indicators such as O&M and Total Cost Coverage are of fundamental importance for financial sustainability in the sector. The performance in the sector, for the year 2023, related to these indicators, is improved by 10.2% for the O&M Costs Coverage indicator and by 6.0% for the Total Costs Coverage indicator compared to 2022.

Operation & Maintenance costs have decreased by about 1.048 billion ALL or -9%, which are mainly due to the significant decrease in electricity costs by 1.469 billion ALL (-38%) and all other operating costs which have suffered decrease during the year 2023, except for labor costs which have increased by 13.2% or by 646.2 million ALL" ERRU estimates. According to the report, the increase in labor costs comes as a result of the wage increase initiated by the central government.

ERRU also assesses that despite the improvement brought by the reform of the water supply union, the indicator of water without income still remains a significant problem of the sector, thus threatening its sustainability.

"The high levels of non-revenue water of 64.7% remain a serious problem within the sector, which threatens the sustainability of UK regional and existing companies. Regional societies should have as their main focus the reduction and elimination of illegal connections as well as physical losses.

On the other hand, for a real assessment of the state of losses and the drafting by companies of the most accurate water balances, the financing and installation of large water meters at the source and individual ones remains of particular importance. to private and family consumers" says the report.

The entity underlines that water balances determine the real state of water demand and serve as a basis for drawing up plans for reducing losses and protecting resources from unjustified overconsumption.

"To begin with, companies can focus on dealing with administrative (commercial) losses that make it possible to recover income that is currently not collected due to illegal consumption. Also, whenever rehabilitation or new laying of the network is attempted to reduce real losses, it is necessary to find technical solutions with affordable costs," the report states./ Monitor