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Utilities leading the way

It can be done — the proof is operating today

The best-performing utilities show that high NRW is a management problem, not a permanent condition. Each turned data, metering, and disciplined leakage control into dramatically lower losses.

72→9%

Phnom Penh · PPWSA

Cut NRW from 72% in 1993 to about 9% by 2023 via metering, regularizing illegal connections, leak repair, and reform — a landmark turnaround.

Source: IWA / PPWSA

~14%

Manila · Manila Water

Used District Metered Areas as the backbone of decentralized field operations to reach among the lowest NRW in Asia, from far higher historic levels.

Source: ADB / Manila Water

~5%

Singapore · PUB

Sustains one of the lowest unaccounted-for-water levels in the world through proactive detection, pressure and asset management.

Source: ADB / PUB

~3%

Tokyo · Bureau of Waterworks

Decades of systematic leakage management hold losses to roughly 3% across a vast network — a global benchmark.

Source: Tokyo Bureau of Waterworks

Figures as publicly reported by the named utilities and international agencies; cited for context, not as a guarantee of results.

The U.S. picture

Non-revenue water in the United States, by the numbers

NRW is not a developing-world problem. Across roughly 48,000 U.S. community water systems, aging networks lose a striking share of treated water every day. These figures are drawn from public sources and vary by methodology — but the order of magnitude is consistent.

of treated U.S. drinking water is lost or unbilled before it reaches customers.

Bluefield Research, 2025

$0B

in uncaptured utility revenue every year, nationwide.

Bluefield Research, 2025

~0B

gallons of treated water lost per day — about 2.1 trillion gallons a year.

U.S. EPA / ASCE

miles of distribution pipe nationwide, much of it 50–100+ years old.

Bluefield Research / EPA

~0k

water main breaks each year — roughly one every two minutes.

U.S. EPA

states that currently require AWWA M36–standard validated water audits.

NRDC / industry reporting

Where the losses concentrate — and who's acting

Just five states — California, Texas, Florida, New York, and Illinois — account for over a third of national water losses. On policy, California's SB 555 has required validated annual water-loss audits from urban retail suppliers since 2017, and the State Water Board is advancing volumetric real-loss performance standards; Georgia, Texas, and Indiana have moved on similar reporting. The data increasingly exists — turning it into prioritized action is the work.

CA SB 555 validated auditsState Water Board real-loss standardsAWWA water-loss datasetWRF Level 1 validation

Compiled from public reporting (Bluefield Research, U.S. EPA, ASCE, AWWA, California DWR / State Water Board). Estimates vary by source and methodology; shown for context.

Questions

Frequently asked

What exactly counts as non-revenue water?

NRW is all water put into distribution that isn't billed: unbilled-but-authorized use (firefighting, flushing), apparent losses (meter inaccuracy, billing/data errors, unauthorized use), and real losses (physical leakage). Numerically, it's system input volume minus billed authorized consumption.

Is a low percentage NRW always good?

Not necessarily. Percentage NRW shifts with consumption and pressure, so it can flatter or penalize a utility for reasons unrelated to performance. Both IWA and AWWA recommend pairing it with volumetric and infrastructure-normalized indicators — real losses per connection and the ILI — for true comparison.

What's a "good" ILI?

An ILI of 1.0 is the technical floor (current real losses equal the unavoidable minimum). Many capable utilities sit above that; the right target isn't universal but the economic level of leakage for your system — where the cost of finding more leaks equals the value of the water saved.

We don't have great data. Can we still start?

Yes — that's the purpose of the audit's data-validity scoring. We start top-down with what you have, identify the inputs limiting confidence, and improve them in priority order. Better data usually comes before, not after, big capital spend.

Do you replace our crews or existing vendors?

No. We're an analytics and engineering partner. We make your audits defensible and your field effort targeted — pointing detection crews, meter-replacement budgets, and pressure projects at the highest-return work, whoever performs it.

Which standards do you work to?

The IWA Standard Water Balance and Water Loss Specialist Group methods, and AWWA M36 with the Free Water Audit Software (v6.0) and Water Audit Compiler. Where your state mandates validated audits, we work to that requirement.

What other utilities are doing — and what they've published.

It can be done — the proof is operating today

Non-revenue water in the United States, by the numbers

Where the losses concentrate — and who's acting

Frequently asked

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