Samoa loses 52.5million litres a day

Samoa loses 52,696,000 litres water per day. That’s according to the Pacific Water and Waste Association (P.W.W.A.) latest Pacific Water and Wastewater Utilities Benchmarking Report. This equates to more than 19 billion litres (19,234,040,000) of water that are wasted per year.

 Samoa loses 52,696,000 litres water per day. That’s according to the Pacific Water and Waste Association (P.W.W.A.) latest Pacific Water and Wastewater Utilities Benchmarking Report. This equates to more than 19 billion litres (19,234,040,000) of water that are wasted per year.

In the report, the Association says that while the Samoa Water Authority (S.W.A.) had improved on the previous year, it still has the lowest Overall Efficiency Rating (O.E.I.) in the region in the large utility category (see graph 3.25), coming in at 29 per cent – well below both the regional average and the benchmark of 70 per cent (see figure 3.25).
“The O.E.I. is a combined indicator of the non-revenue water and collection ratio using the equation O.E.I. = (1-NRW) x Collection Ratio,” the report reads.
“The O.E.I. therefore represents the percentage of water produced that actually generates utility income.”
S.W.A’s latest Annual Report for the financial year 2012-2013 does state that its non-revenue water sits at the 70 per cent mark.

What this means, is that the Authority is only charging its customers for 30 per of the water it produces, leaving the rest of the water unaccounted for.

To reach the figure of 52 million litres of water wasted per day, the P.W.W.A. shows that there are 18,820 water connections in Samoa (see figure 3.1).

Per connection, the Association reports that on average the S.W.A. produces 2,800 litres of non-revenue water per connection (see figure 3.10).

Further data that shows that for every kilometre of pipe 17,600 litres of water is unaccounted for per kilometre of S.W.A. water pipe (see figure 3.11).

According to the P.W.W.A., their report presents benchmarking results from 24 water utilities, 20 of which completed the 2013 benchmarking questionnaire.

Collectively these utilities supply water and wastewater services in 14 countries and 2 US protectorates in the Pacific region.

“The report has been prepared under the direction of the Pacific Water and Wastes Association (P.W.W.A.) with support from the Pacific Region Infrastructure Facility (P.R.I.F.),” it reads.

“Government departments and statutory organisations were in the lower performance range, yet, by 
financial performance, the worst performers were the state-owned enterprises (S.O.E.s).”

And so it is with the Authority, an S.O.E., underperforming in most categories, only outshining its regional counterparts in the area of sewerage and human resources. “Compared to 2012’s benchmarking exercise, utilities improved on coverage, wastewater management, staff training, and revenues collected,” the report reads.

“No improvements have been made in reducing non-revenue water (still very high), water quality, continuity of supply, operating cost recovery, collection of bills, and accounts receivable.”

In fact, at 70 per cent the Authority is well above the Pacific Benchmark for non revenue water which is set at 25 per cent (see figure 3.9).

The P.W.W.A. reports that S.W.A. also performed below the regional average in a number of other areas. It was nine per cent below the regional average for water supply with its water supply reaching on 81 per cent of the Samoan population (see figure 3.3).

This is well below what it scored in in 2011, where it came in well above average and hitting the Pacific Benchmark of 95 per cent coverage.

Looking now at the quality of our drinking water, according to the Association only 67 per cent of the water S.W.A. offers its customers is treated, well below the 89 per cent regional water (see figure 3.12).

However, it did note that: “S.W.A. has recovered well from the drop in 2012 and improved considerably after rehabilitating its water treatment plants.”

Furthermore, the Authority has the highest number of unhappy customers, at 365 complaints per 1000 connections per year (see figure 3.20).

The Association also reports that S.W.A. has one of the lowest average revenues charging US$0.58 or $1.34 tala per 1000 litres (see figure 3.21).

“Though P.W.W.A. has not defined a Pacific benchmark, a water tariff ranging US$1.00-US$1.50/kL would normally be required to recover basic operating and maintenance costs,” the report reads (see figure 3.22).

According to the report S.W.A. still relies on Government subsidies to cover their operating costs and at 85 per cent that it has the lowest bill collection ratio, that is actual income versus billed revenue (see figure 3.23 above).

It is not all bad news, with the Authority outperforming its regional counterparts with its sewerage systems coverage at 89 per cent of the population (see figure 3.4).

“The sewerage systems coverage of large utilities averages 64 per cent, which is below the Pacific 75 per cent benchmark,” the P.W.W.A. reports.

“S.W.A. operates a small but dedicated well-performing wastewater treatment system in Apia, serving the business/tourist centres and hospital.

“S.W.A. servers no residential areas.” Another area in which S.W.A. outperformed other large utilities in the region was in human resources development.

According to the Association, the Authority 12.5 staff per 1000 connections, which is well above the Pacific benchmark of 8 (see figure 3.16). In addition to this, S.W.A. was the only utility to reach the Pacific benchmark in staff training (see figure 3.17).

“Generally, staff receive insufficient training for the Pacific benchmark,” the report reads.

“Only S.W.A., Samoa has almost reached the Pacific benchmark of five days annually.

“A common concern in the Pacific Islands is staff qualifications. “Most staff capabilities are learned ‘on the job,’ with little time and budget allocated to train employees.

“The results illustrate that, with the exception of the S.W.A., all utilities remain far below the Pacific benchmark.”

The P.W.W.A.’s 7th Pacific Water Conference and Expo will be held in American Samoa next month, where regional benchmarking is set to be discussed.

If you would like to read the P.W.W.A. report in full it is available online at http://pwwa.ib-net.org.