The Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) and Yangon City Development Committee (YCDC) are working together to transform the city’s public water supply system, which is currently inefficient due to leakage and non-metered usages.
Up to 40 percent of the supplied water is lost due to leakage caused by the quality of pipes and the long distances between the main supply pipeline. Many households as well as fraudulent users who take advantage of the low-tech meters, JICA Myanmar office said.
To prevent the losses, JICA is implementing the “Technical Transfer Program” in the pilot area of Yankin township, which includes installing 300 new water meters at 280 households and schools and monasteries.
Substandard pipes and outdated and low-quality water meters make it impossible to track the flow of the water supply and the currently implemented program will enable easy and accurate detection of the leaks, illegal connections and water theft through building new distribution pathways and installing Japanese-made water meters, JICA Myanmar said.
“Under the current program, a meter will be installed at the main pumping point to measure the load distributed. When the combined volume registered by all the meters installed each point of the end users does not match the pumped volume, it can be easily investigated if the missing water has leaked or has been stolen,” said Masaru Matsuoka, JICA’s water supply advisor working with YCDC.
The technical transfer program was started in October last year as a pilot project and will continue to the end of March 2015. The merits of the program will be reviewed before a ¥23-billion water supply transformation project is launched in Dagon Seikkan township, East Dagon township, South Dagon township and North Dagon township in 2016 through the cooperation between JICA and YCDC, Matsuoka said.
JICA has pledged $160,000 in estimate for procuring materials to implement the water distribution network designed together with YCDC.
Construction and maintenance of the network is handled by YCDC and the subsequent effects will be reviewed jointly by JICA and YCDC.
