Application of Geospatial Technology in Curbing Non Revenue Water: A Case Study of Murang'a Municipality

Non Revenue Water is water that has been produced but cannot be accounted for through billing process. This has been contributed by frequent bursts, meter inaccuracy as well as high pressure within the water reticulation system. Muranga Water and Sanitation Company laid numerous spatially related strategies to reduce NRW level from 49 % to 20 %, but due to lack of a spatially indexed tool which would assist in planning, budgeting and procurement of appropriate items, the implementation exercise was ineffective, resulting to abandonment of the strategies before achieving the expected results. This project aims at utilizing GIS technology in the implementation of the spatially related strategies to curb high NRW level. The methodology adopted involved data collection whereby GPS points for water facilities, pressure data, elevation data, NRW data and cadastral data were obtained. The data was harmonized through creation of a geodatabase. Pressure data and elevation data were interpolated using Inverse distance weighted method. Geoidal Undulation was applied to ellipsoidal height collected using GPS to obtain orthometric height before interpolation was done. Data were then integrated in a GIS platform and numerous analyses performed including identification of pipes networks prone to bursts and leakages, identification of class A and B meters that required immediate replacement, buffering from road reserve sharing boundary with consumers parcels of land through which topological analyses identified connections served by long service lines exceeding 5m from the distribution main, suitable regions for installing Pressure Reducing Valves as well as Air Reducing Valves. Susceptibility and vulnerability to bursts and leakages model was generated using pressure data and elevation data to identify regions within the zone requiring special attention. In addition, network dataset was developed that has capacity of generating optimal routes for quick response to bursts and leakages. Solutions to the effective implementation of these strategies were arrived at, through effective handling of spatial data related to water reticulation systems using GIS technology.