CHENNAI: The Chennai Metro Water Supply and Sewerage Board (CMWSSB) is looking to plug internal system leakages due to inadequate metering and operational inefficiencies through an efficiency improvement cell. The cell will take stock and minimise non-revenue water and other systemic gaps that leave the board financially bleeding.
Officials that TNIE spoke to said having focused in the last decade on creating additional resources to deal with water scarcity, it will now focus on strengthening distribution and reducing financial losses.
“Along with efficient supply, our focus now is to take up an analysis of the distribution system and the cost recovered from supply. We have decided to set up the dedicated cell to achieve professional efficiency in all aspects, especially in reducing non-revenue water, cost-recovery and setting up IoT-based monitoring mechanisms,” said a senior official.
The board, at present, does not have a comprehensive mechanism in place to quantify water that is not accounted for in the distribution system, otherwise known as non-revenue water. However, through the bulk water meters that it is currently being installed in transmission lines, the board hopes to accurately track its supply from the source to distribution. With the new efficiency improvement cell, it will then look at ways to reduce it.
“Once the bulk meter installation is complete, we will be able to identify any (illegal) tapping of water along the way. Almost 70% of the installation is now complete,” the official said.
The Efficiency Improvement Cell (EIC) will be located at the headquarters of CMWSSB office in Chennai and has experts in financial management, water supply along with monitoring and evaluation. The board plans to appoint a consultant for setting up the cell who will broadly look at efficiency improvement, cost savings and revenue improvement for metro water.
More specifically, it will study global best practices and offer strategies for achieving operational and financial efficiency, energy efficiency, expanding customer base, tariffs, cost recovery aspects, demand management, metering and capital investment efficiency. It will also help in setting up a dashboard, as part of the IT infrastructure to improve data accessibility and transparency.
Roles of Efficiency Improvement Cell
Data collection: Bulk water supplied at different WDS, water quality levels, pressure from available sensors, newly generated data in CMWSSB’s 15 administrative areas
Support CMWSSB in zone/area/depot wise review of operational parameters and identify inefficiencies
Conduct zone/area/depot analysis of unit-level operating costs and support in tracking the expenditure incurred for the supply of water such as energy charges, repairs and maintenance, and other expenses.
Conducting regular assessments of operational and financial efficiencies through a gap analysis to identify opportunities for efficiency improvements
Water supply to be disrupted in five zones
Chennai: Piped water supply may be disrupted in five zones during the weekend (from 8 am on May 24 to 8 am on May 25) due to CMRL work at Purasawalkam High Road, said a release from Chennai Metro Water Supply and Sewerage Board (CMWSSB). The residents in these five zones- Tondiarpet, Royapuram, Thiru Vi Ka Nagar, Anna Nagar and Teynampet- have been asked to store sufficient drinking water beforehand or book ‘Dial for Water’ services through the metro water website, according to the release.