The Municipality of Chaves (Northern Portugal), in partnership with INDAQUA is developing a way to reduce water losses along the county’s supply networks. In addition to the environmental benefit, the company also guarantees the municipality a savings of 2.3 million euros.
In 2019, much of the water that entered chaves’ supply networks was lost in the environment before reaching consumer taps, which put the county with inefficiencies above the national average. The Water Efficiency Project with Performance Compensation concluded between the Municipality of Chaves and INDAQUA will reduce the level of water losses to about half of its current values, in just five years.
To achieve this, INDAQUA, will conduct a full evaluuation of infrastructure, with the aim to modernise the system using artificial intelligence tools to collect and analyse data. This data can the support the rapid on-ground performance in eliminating leaks along the 495 km of water networks in the county. The plan also includes reducing the pressure in critical areas, in order to reduce the number of ruptures and the expenses associated with them.
At the commercial level, the measurement and elimination of high or illicit consumption and connections will be made along with a plan for more efficient measurement and billing of services provided to customers.
The agreement follows an innovative model in the water sector in Portugal, which transfers the risk of investment to the company and not to the contracting entity, whether public or private. This is because almost all of INDAQUA’s remuneration depends on its performance.
“Over more than 25 years of activity, INDAQUA has acquired great experience in reducing losses in the territories where it operates municipal water concessions, that is, where it is responsible for the total management of supply networks. The good results achieved led us to participate in the Water Efficiency Projects, to share with other management entities the experience and knowledge of INDAQUA, which allow us to achieve real savings results in a short time,” explains Pedro Perdigão, CEO of the INDAQUA Group.
“We see in this project a way to promote greater efficiency in the management of water supply in our municipality. In this way, we will be respecting a good that is everyone’s and that is increasingly threatened by phenomena such as climate change or pollution, promoting a more sustainable future for the municipality of Chaves”, says Nuno Vaz, Mayor of Chaves.
In Portugal, water losses in supply networks (measured by the indicator “Unbilled Water”) remain close to 30% for nine years, well above the 20% recommended by the sector regulator (ERSAR). INDAQUA has bucked this trend and, in 2020, achieved average losses of only 13.9%, in all seven municipalities in which it had municipal water concessions (Fafe, Matosinhos, Oliveira de Azeméis, Santa Maria da Feira, Santo Tirso, Trofa and Vila do Conde). If the whole country had the same performance as INDAQUA, Portugal would save 122 million m in a single year enough to supply the country for about 3 months and 70 million euros, equivalent to the rehabilitation of 1,000 km of pipelines.
