The Year in Infrastructure 2008 - (Page 6) SuStaining Our SOciety – Winner Maharashtra Jeevan Pradhikaran Transforming Intermittent Water Supply of Developing Countries to 24x7 System Badlapur, India Providing potable water to the dense population of developing countries is a daunting task. At least 1.6 million people die every year due to diseases related to unsafe water supply. In India, daily water supply ranges from just 27 liters per capita per day (LPCD) in poor areas to 160 LPCD in affluent areas – compared to 260 LPCD in the typical U.S. single-family home. Low consumption is related to poor service provided by an intermittent water supply. During nonsupply hours, pipes remain empty and dirty water enters the pipeline at vulnerable spots, causing contamination and associated health risks. When the water supply source for Badlapur, India, was severely damaged during unprecedented rain in July 2005, construction of a new barrage gave occasion to optimize the distribution system for continuous water supply to the city’s more than 140,000 inhabitants. The project team used WaterGEMS to design a hydraulic model of existing and proposed pipelines. The process required modeling the entire distribution system, calibrating network and consumer withdrawal patterns during system modifications, and creating zones and district metering areas to further improve service. Water loss and diversion caused by leaking underground storage tanks and oversized aboveground tanks complicated the analysis. Features such as flow controlling valves, reservoirs as source nodes, pipe junctions, pipe elements, and demand nodes helped to analyze and optimize the distribution network. With district metering areas properly demarcated and set in operation, various improvement measures such as leakage control and throttling of valves for equitable water supply have been implemented. With a population projected to grow to 300,000 by 2011, Badlapur now provides 24-by-7 water supply to 16 out of 34 wards, with the remaining wards to be completed this year. Transformation of the intermittent system to 24-by-7 service simultaneously reduced nonrevenue water loss by 427 million liters per year, producing considerable cost savings. bE AwARd wINNER ALSO NOMINATED IN INDuSTry CATEgOry: INNOvATION IN WATEr rESOurCES I uSTry CATE ST ATEg I v WATE ATEr WinnEr 6
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