Water balance by country · Updated 2026-09-29
Non-revenue water in India: CPHEEO water audits, AMRUT 2.0 targets and intermittent supply
How Indian urban local bodies and PHEDs run an IWA water balance under the CPHEEO manual and AMRUT 2.0, with intermittent supply, partial metering and low pressure handled correctly — and why the low-and-middle-income bands apply.
Calculator settings for India
- Units
- Metric (MLD common — enter m³; 1 MLD = 1,000 m³/day)
- Benchmark category
- Low & middle income
- Meter location
- Mixed; large unmetered and flat-rate share
- Supply
- Often intermittent — enter hours/day by zone
- Reporting
- CPHEEO Manual on Water Supply; AMRUT 2.0 (NRW < 20%); state PHEDs and ULBs; SLB indicators
Non-revenue water in Indian cities is typically 35–50% of supply, and AMRUT 2.0 sets a service-level benchmark of under 20%. The CPHEEO Manual on Water Supply and Treatment adopts the IWA water balance as the method for quantifying it. The challenge is that most Indian systems are intermittently supplied, partially metered and low-pressure — conditions under which a naïve balance gives misleading answers.
Intermittent supply changes everything
Leakage only happens while the network is pressurised. Enter hours of supply per day by zone on the Pressure & supply step; the calculator then reports real losses and NRW 'when the system is pressurised' (w.s.p.) so that a 4-hours-a-day city can be compared fairly with a 24×7 one. Without that correction, intermittent systems look better than they are, and 24×7 conversion looks like it increased leakage.
Metering and consumption
Where household meters are absent or non-functional, billed unmetered consumption dominates. Estimate it from population × per-capita use (CPHEEO norms of 135 L/person/day for cities with sewerage are a starting point; measured 24×7 zones often show 100–150) and carry ±25–40%. Non-functional meters that are billed on average consumption belong in billed unmetered, not billed metered.
Pressure and the ILI
Average pressures of 5–15 m are common in intermittent systems. Below about 25 m the UARL formula is unreliable and the ILI can come out implausibly high; the World Bank Institute matrix for low-and-middle-income systems, which the calculator selects when you choose that category, gives more sensible bands. Use real losses in litres per connection per day per metre of pressure alongside the ILI.
Typical results and what moves them
Cities that have converted zones to 24×7 supply with DMAs and pressure management (Nagpur, Hubli-Dharwad, Karnataka's pilot towns, parts of Delhi and Bengaluru) have brought NRW below 20% zone by zone. The what-if levers on the results page — supply hours, pressure, target apparent losses — let you show a municipal commissioner what that transition is worth in water, rupees and carbon before the DPR is written.