1. Metering Impact on the Level of Non-Revenue Water:
WaterBalance Case Studies of Lebanese Water
Utilities, Challenges and Opportunities
Salah Georges Saliba1
1LWP Private Sector Engagement Team Lead
Thematic Area: Cost recovery for water service provision
Keywords: Law 221, consumption based tariff, Non-Revenue Water (NRW), District Metering
Area (DMA), Cost Recovery, Performance Improvement Action Plan (PIAP), Consumption Based
Tariff
The law 221 and its amendments in the year 2000 reorganized the Lebanese water sector
resulting in the merger of 21 former water authorities to establish four Regional Water
Establishments (RWEs), Beirut and Mount-Lebanon Water Establishment (BMLWE), Bekaa
Water Establishment (BWE), North Lebanon Water Establishment (NLWE), South Lebanon
Water Establishment (SLWE).
The four Water Establishments serve approximately a total of 1 million subscribers with a
service coverage range from 85 to 88% at SLWE and BMLWE service areas respectively and
56 to 60% at NLWE and BWE respectively. One of the key challenges that RWEs are facing is
Non-Revenue Water (NRW) reduction which is currently estimated at 50 – 60%.
The fact today remains that 90% of the service connections are gauged while only 10% of
the subscribers are metered. It is believed that reading existing customer meters and proper
implementation of consumption based tariff will allow the utilities to save a total of 7 Million
m3 per year. With an average unit production cost of 570 LBP/m3 this is translated into a saving
of approximately 4 Billion LBP / year, ($ 2,7 Million US/ year).
In light of the increasing stress over scarce natural resources and recurrent droughts such in
the year 2014, the Lebanese water utilities have engaged in adopting customer metering
strategies. This has allowed for a systematic shift into demand management driven culture,
instead of the traditional production oriented culture.
The USAID funded projects has supported the Lebanese utilities through the development of
metering strategies and related Performance Improvement Action Plans (PIAPs). Accordingly,
the required capital investments were identified and model District Metering Areas (DMA)
have been established which included the installation of 15,000 customer meters. Those model
projects were implemented in rural and urban areas such as Haouch el Oumara (Bekaa),
Deddeh, Hamat, el Mina (North Lebanon), Kesserwan service area (Beirut Mount-Lebanon)
and Hellaliyeh (South Lebanon).
Theses interventions have allowed the establishments to acquire hands on experience in
improving water supply systems efficiency through NRW reduction (apparent / commercial
and real / technical losses). They also contributed to drastic reduction in the costs of production
and distribution to achieve cost recovery. They improved hours of service with direct
implication on collection rate improvement. At the same time, they have increased the number
of subscribers and improved service coverage. As a matter of fact, they have ultimately
contributed to raise customer satisfaction through enhancing socio-economic equity among all
categories of customers through the adoption of a fair consumption based tariff.