The government, through the Water Regulatory Authority (AURA), in coordination with water sector entities in Mozambique, is designing strategies to reduce water losses, currently estimated at around 50%.

To this end, AURA is holding the IV Regional Seminar on Capacity Building in Regulation and Loss Reduction, a two-day event that aims, among other things, to improve the intervention mechanisms of the water and sanitation sector management entities in the Greater Maputo Metropolitan Region.

"It's a general concern for the regulator, but I believe it's for society in general, it has to do with losses. Our level of losses in the country is high. We're talking about 50% of losses," said AURA's administrator, Julieta Paulo, during the opening of the Regional Seminar on Capacity Building in Regulation and Loss Reduction, this Monday (16) in Maputo.

In a publication by AIMThe source explained that water loss occurs in both large and small systems and that "AURA will therefore jointly draw up a plan to reduce the level of loss to a point that is considered acceptable".

He said that as part of its activities, AURA has concluded that there are some inconsistencies in the data, which is why, according to the source, the aim of the seminar is to improve the data collection methodology.

"We wanted to bring a new approach that we consider raw data collection, which will allow the same information that the management entities have, the regulator has," he stressed, emphasizing that "a new approach to data collection will allow us to interact better on the matter linked to the performance evaluation data that we collect."

According to the company Águas da Região Metropolitana de Maputo, commercial losses, such as water theft, vandalization and clandestine connections, result in an annual loss of around 50 to 60 million dollars.

For his part, Rogério Batina, representing the National Supply and Sanitation Directorate (DNAAS), said that reducing losses has a substantial impact on the sustainability of companies, private suppliers and operators, and above all on consumers.

(Photo DR)