A platform for research: civil engineering, architecture and urbanism
A platform for research: civil engineering, architecture and urbanism
Water Losses from Municipal Utilities and their Impacts
During the past few years the city of Ar-Riyadh, the capital of Saudi Arabia, has seen a significant increase in urbanization, from a gross residential area of 8,500 ha in 1980 to 62,712 ha in 1990. This 638 per cent increase in urbanization, accompanied by a 91 per cent increase in population (from 850,000 to 1,622,000), has led to a great increase in water consumption that has reached 620 l/cap/day. Most of this water is imported into the Ar-Riyadh environment, but the capability of that environment to dispose of the excess water or wastewater by means of infiltration or evaporation is limited. Consequently the city has begun to experience a rise in the groundwater level that is causing a variety of problems for its citizens.
This paper outlines the methodologies and discusses the results from a field study of water losses from the municipal wet infrastructures in six selected areas of Ar-Riyadh that included the potable water the sanitary sewer and the storm drainage networks. More emphasis was put on the field identification of leakage from the potable water network that approached 16 per cent of the water fed into the areas. Thus Ar-Riyadh compares well with other cities around the world where leakage has been reported to be in the range between 5 and 50 per cent. Losses from the sanitary and storm drainage systems were 7 and 4.5 per cent respectively. Besides the impacts on buildings and infrastructure services, the cost of potable water lost by leakage on its own, estimated at a minimum value of US$50 million per year is a considerable economic loss.
Water Losses from Municipal Utilities and their Impacts
During the past few years the city of Ar-Riyadh, the capital of Saudi Arabia, has seen a significant increase in urbanization, from a gross residential area of 8,500 ha in 1980 to 62,712 ha in 1990. This 638 per cent increase in urbanization, accompanied by a 91 per cent increase in population (from 850,000 to 1,622,000), has led to a great increase in water consumption that has reached 620 l/cap/day. Most of this water is imported into the Ar-Riyadh environment, but the capability of that environment to dispose of the excess water or wastewater by means of infiltration or evaporation is limited. Consequently the city has begun to experience a rise in the groundwater level that is causing a variety of problems for its citizens.
This paper outlines the methodologies and discusses the results from a field study of water losses from the municipal wet infrastructures in six selected areas of Ar-Riyadh that included the potable water the sanitary sewer and the storm drainage networks. More emphasis was put on the field identification of leakage from the potable water network that approached 16 per cent of the water fed into the areas. Thus Ar-Riyadh compares well with other cities around the world where leakage has been reported to be in the range between 5 and 50 per cent. Losses from the sanitary and storm drainage systems were 7 and 4.5 per cent respectively. Besides the impacts on buildings and infrastructure services, the cost of potable water lost by leakage on its own, estimated at a minimum value of US$50 million per year is a considerable economic loss.
Water Losses from Municipal Utilities and their Impacts
Khadam, Mohamed A. (author) / Shammas, Nazih Kh. (author) / Al-Feraiheedi, Yousef (author)
Water International ; 16 ; 254-261
1991-01-01
8 pages
Article (Journal)
Electronic Resource
Unknown
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