Rooftop tanks are supplying free water

Non-registration of water pumped into rooftop tanks is expected to be more than halved after all the water meters are changed, a conference heard yesterday. No less than 18 per cent of water in rooftop tanks is currently undetected and therefore uncharged. The figure is expected to be brought down to seven per cent, Ronald Pace from the Water Services Corporation told a conference on the subject. The small trickles of water into the tank when it is filling up go undetected by the water meter, with the corporation dismissing it as “unavoidable”. The conference was organised as part of the corporation’s 20th anniversary and brought together local and foreign experts to discuss non-revenue water – water produced or fed by the corporation into the system but which is not paid for by the consumer. Mr Pace, who is responsible for dealing with such leakages as well as the roll-out of the Automated Metering Management project, said 56,000 meters have been installed so far – more than 50 per cent of the total. All meters installed before 2003 will be changed, bringing down the average age of the meters from 9.2 years to around six years. He said the new meters will go a long way...