56% water consumed unaccounted for in Pom

By MATTHEW VARI

Sunday, June 22, 2014 (Sunday Chronicle, PNG)

IN light of the predicted water woes to be faced by Port Moresby residents over the coming weeks in relation to the very low water levels at the Sirinumu dam outside the city- Eda Ranu revealed that 56 percent of the 170 million litres that’s pass through the taps into the city on a daily basis have not been accounted for.

Eda Ranu Water distribution Manager Johnathan Maino said that one of the biggest problems faced by the water supplier was that of illegal connections.

He revealed that the illegal connections were widespread throughout the city, which he said was a worry for the city’s supply now that the city’s major reservoir was drying up.

“One of the biggest problems in the city is that we have a lot of illegal users, even those users are from properly sub-divided areas,” Maino said.

“To give you a background of this- we are supplying 170 million litres a day for the city.”

“Out of the 170 million litres a day, 56 percent (95 million litres) of that 170 million is non-revenue water and is unaccounted for as we are not being paid for it.”

“So you can clearly see, and with this El Nino thing it’s like water is just lost to the illegal activities and it is all wasted to non-paying consumers, so we have to tighten that and address this wastage.”

Measures that have been taken by Eda Ranu with over 3,000 properties disconnected so far, as explained by the Commercial Services Manager Paul Gore.

“We have already removed about 3,000 mains, with 1,000 that have responded to our calls to do away with their illegal connections,” Gore said.

“Since we have reconnected them for the last 7 months, consumption of those connected has been at 530 million litres, which has been converted to revenue.”

He said that the last two months have seen a major drive for main disconnections, for those who have not responded to notices of disconnection.

With the exercise the state owned enterprise hopes to reduce the 56% in water revenues not accounted for.

Other mechanisms include to conversion of settlements and villages, who have been connected to the water system through the various partnerships between electorate MPs in the city, to have bulk metres installed so they all pay collectively.

“The good intensions of their Members of Parliament to meet the construction costs of the various water projects in settlements and surrounding villages in and around the city, by bringing water supply to their doorsteps, but the attitude of our people are such that they have not taken ownership of this vital services and have accumulated bills that have forced us to cut the services.”

Both executives called on residents to be mindful of their usage of water during this time, and called on resident with illegal connection to cease their illegal activities as they would eventually catch up to them and permanently be cut off from the system.