Efficiency of non-revenue water reduction in improving water supply performance in Indian metropolises

Abstract

Abstract Many cities around the world face water crisis. Poor management contributes more to water crises than resource constraints. Multiple Indian metropolitan cities face severe water crises. These cities usually have high non-revenue water (NRW) levels. The present study estimates the efficiency of the extent of NRW management to improve per capita water supply (PCS) and cost recovery (CR) in 55 Indian metropolises with more than one million population. The study considered variable-returns-to-scale data envelopment analysis (DEA) using input orientation (I/P DEA). NRW has been used as the input variable, while the PCS and CR are studied as the output variables. The DEA model recommends that reduced NRW levels can address the water crisis in Indian cities. According to the DEA findings, about 38 Indian cities (68.09%) could reduce NRW levels by more than 50% while improving PCS and CR levels substantially. Around 47 cities (85.45%) can fulfil the water supply benchmark value of 135 litres per capita per day (lpcd). Three cities can improve the cost recovery by more than 100%. The findings suggest that water supply utilities in Indian cities should focus on reducing NRW levels substantially to improve the PCS and CR.