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Q IWA Publishing 2009 Water Science & Technology: Water SupplyWSTWS | 9.2 | 2009

141

Leakage management in a low-pressure water

distribution network of Bangkok
Mukand S. Babel, Md. S. Islam and A. Das Gupta

ABSTRACT
Losses of water due to leakage occur in every distribution network, the only difference is in the
amount of leakage. The leakage levels are relatively high in cities of developing Asian countries.
Among the several factors, operating pressure is the most important affecting the leakage.
This paper describes how the management of pressure can help reduce the leakage in the water
distribution network. EPANET is used to develop the hydraulic model to analyse the effect of

Mukand S. Babel (corresponding author)

Md. S. Islam
A. Das Gupta
Water Engineering and Management,
Asian Institute of Technology,
Klong Luang, Pathumthani 12120,
Thailand
E-mail: msbabel@ait.ac.th

alternative pressure profiles on the leakage in a pilot area within the water distribution system of
Bangkok. One of the alternatives is implemented in the field to verify the applicability of the
model. Results indicate that the average reduction in pressure by 2.4 m can reduce the leakage
by 12.5% of the system inflow without compromising the level of service.
Key words

| Bangkok, EPANET, leakage, pressure management, water distribution network

INTRODUCTION
Controlling water losses from the pipe network is always a

pressure except in Japan (Lambert 2000). Pressure control

challenge for water utility organization, even in countries

is very effective means of reducing background leakage in

with a well-developed infrastructure and good operating

distribution networks. It also reduces occurrence of bursts

practices. However, it always takes on a new dimension in

and related damages. The pressure control technology has

developing countries, where a combination of poor infra-

improved enormously in recent years and different types of

structure and poor operational practices is common. During

pressure reducing valves (PRV) are available for pressure

the first 20 years of leakage control program implemented

reduction, pressure sustaining, with or without flow

by Metropolitan Waterworks Authority (MWA) of Bangkok,

modulation, profiling and so on.

passive and active leakage control and change of truck

In this study, a network hydraulic model is developed

mains and distribution pipes resulted in leakage reduction

for a district metering area (DMA) within the water

to 29.5% in 1991. However, the leakage rate has increased

distribution network in Bangkok to analyse the effect of

to 38.3% in 2001, which indicates that the replacement of

operating pressure and its management on leakage. One of

mains could not provide permanent solution the problem of

the alternatives analysed is implemented in the field to

reducing the non-revenue water (NRW). MWA plans to

verify the model results and its applicability in managing

reduce the NRW to 30% and to maintain a minimum

pressures in water distribution systems.

pressure of 6 m in the system by 2006 (MWA 2005). Thus,

developing suitable leakage control strategies deserves
immediate attention by water supply organization.
Although pressure is one of the easiest parameters to

STUDY AREA

measure in a distribution network, leakage statistics are

MWA is responsible for supplying good quality water to

almost always quoted without any reference to average

its consumers (residences, businesses, and industries) in

doi: 10.2166/ws.2009.088

M. S. Babel et al. | Leakage management in a low pressure water

142

Figure 1

Water Science & Technology: Water SupplyWSTWS | 9.2 | 2009

MWA service area.

Bangkok and its surrounding provinces of Nonthaburi, and

water quality behaviour within pressurized pipe networks

Samut Prakan (Figure 1). The water supply system consists

consisting of pipes, nodes or pipe junctions, pumps, valves

of 15 service areas with 14 branch offices and 1 separate

and storage tanks or reservoirs. The model computes

office in-charge of the water provision, customer services,

junction heads and link flows for a fixed set of reservoir

pipe and valve repairs, meter replacement, meter recording,

levels, tank levels, and water demands over a succession of

bills collection and other related services (MWA 2005).

points in time (Rossman 2000). The model is applied for

The study area is located in the Bangkoknoi branch

Extended Period Simulation (EPS).

(one of the 14 branches). The whole service area of the

The distribution network in the study area composes an

branch is divided into six zones, zone 1 to zone 5 and

inlet (entry of water from the large network) and 60 pipes

zone 7. Under each zone there are several District Metering

with a total length of 17.5 km connected by 77 junctions and

Areas (DMA). The present study is carried out in one of the

DMAs of zone 1 named DMA-0144-01. Table 1 provides
the basic information of the study area.

WATER DISTRIBUTION NETWORK MODELING

EPANET2.0 is used to develop the network model for the
DMA-0144-01. The model developed by the USEPA
performs extended period simulation of hydraulic and
Table 1

Study area at a glance

Area coverage (km2)

2.5

Population served (estimated) (no.)

3,570

No. of metered properties

820

Total length of the pipe up to service pipe (km)

Figure 2

17.5

Table 2

EPANET 2.0 network model of the study area.

Model calibration results

Mean value
Parameter
3

Simulated

Observed

Error (%)

Average daily operating pressure (2004) (m)

12.0

Inlet flow (m /d)

1,702

1,696

Non-revenue water (2004) (%)

38

Critical point pressure (m)

7.86

7.89

2 0.38

Maximum diameter of the pipe (mm)

300

AZP pressure (m)

8.17

8.09

1.00

0.35

143

M. S. Babel et al. | Leakage management in a low pressure water

Water Science & Technology: Water SupplyWSTWS | 9.2 | 2009

Table 3

Model performance statistics

AZP

Figure 3

Comparison of computed and observed inflow to the system.

19 different types of valves. Diameter of the pipes ranges from

100 to 300 mm. Asbestos cement (AC), cast iron (CI) and
galvanized iron (GI) are the main pipe materials.
The study network is shown in Figure 2. In the

Inlet flow

Critical point

pressure

(m3/h)

pressure (m)

(m)

No. of observations

24

24

24

Efficiency index

EI

0.97

0.96

0.93

Root mean
square error

RMSE

3.82

0.01

0.48

Mean absolute error

MAE

2.80

0.44

0.59

RMSE mean

RMSEM

0.05

0.06

0.08

RMS over standard

deviation

RMSES

0.16

0.01

0.20

Mean percentage
error, %

MPE

22.08

0.16

4.96

Mean absolute
percentage error, %

MAPE

4.78

4.78

4.78

Correlations
coefficient

0.99

1.00

0.99

model, two types of demands are assigned to each node,

namely consumer demand or base demand and leakage
demand. Consumer demand is assigned by counting the
number of properties supplied with water from the node.
The average consumer demand for each household is
calculated based on the billed water (Islam 2005). In
EPANET2.0, the leakage demand or pressure-dependent
demand is modelled using emitters with appropriate
emitter coefficients assigned. An emitter coefficient is the
power exponent of the head loss-pressure relationship. In
this study, an emitter coefficient of 1.12 is initially
assigned at each node based on the pressure step test
and then calibrated (Islam 2005).

CALIBRATION AND VERIFICATION OF THE MODEL

As stated earlier, emitter coefficients and roughness of the
pipe materials are taken as calibration parameters. The
calculated and observed inflow at the inlet point, pressure at
the average zone point (AZP) and the pressure at critical
point are compared in the calibration process. The
calibration results are presented in Table 2.
The model is calibrated and verified for extended period
simulation. Figure 3 shows the observed and calculated
inflow and the simulated leakage flow in the system for the
diurnal simulation. Similarly, Figure 4 depicts the simulated
and observed pressure at critical point in the system along
with the pressure at the inlet. It is seen that the model
results match well the observed values.
It can be further seen from Table 3 that the correlation
coefficients between simulated and observed inlet flow,
Table 4

Model calibration results with leakage flow

Observed

Average

Estimated

Simulated

inflow

night use

leakage

leakage

Error

(m3/h)

(m3/h)

(m3/h)

(m3/h)

(%)

1-2-3 September, 29.2

2004 (Avg.)

18.2

11.0

11.2

01.82

5 January, 2005

30.9

18.2

12.7

11.3

211.02

25 February,
2005

28.4

18.2

10.2

11.1

08.82

Date(s)

Figure 4

Simulated and observed critical point pressure.

M. S. Babel et al. | Leakage management in a low pressure water

144

Table 5

Water Science & Technology: Water SupplyWSTWS | 9.2 | 2009

Model verification results

Mean value
Parameter
3

Inflow (m /d)

Critical point pressure (m)

Date

Observed

Simulated

Error (%)

1-2-3 September, 2004 (Avg.)

1,933

1,923

2 0.52

26 January, 2005

1,679

1,718

2.32

25 February, 2005

1,762

1,719

2 2.44

1-2-3 September, 2004 (Avg.)

12.41

12.28

2 1.04

26 January, 2005

8.28

8.15

1.57

25 February, 2005

8.01

8.00

2 0.12

critical point pressure and average zone point pressure are

For simulating the night flow, the customer demand is

very close to unity indicating acceptable performance of the

assigned as zero and the model is run to calculate the inflow

model. Other error statistics, like root mean square error

to the system. The calculated inflow from the model is

and standard deviations, also show that the model rep-

compared with the actual inflow measured at the inlet in

resents the hydraulics of flow in the network very well.

Table 4. The average night use by customer is estimated

The model is also tested for the leakage. It is assumed

from the household survey conducted by MWA during the

that during the night time (01:00 to 02:00 am) the total flow

first week of June 2004 in the service area of Bangkoknoi

into the network is composed namely of customer night use

Branch with a sample size of 1,750. The survey results

and the leakage in the network.

indicate the average night use of 18.2 m3/h (Islam 2005).

It is seen from Table 4 that the simulated leakage match
reasonably well the leakage estimated based on the night
use survey. The differences may be due to the variation in
the actual night use by the consumers. The calibrated values
of Hazen-Williams roughness index vary between 125 and
140 and the emitter coefficients from 0.94 to 1.12. The
values of these calibration parameters are within the normal
range (Rossman 2000).
The model is verified with different sets of observed
inflows and critical point pressures and results are presented
in Table 5 for these two parameters with different daily
pressure profiles in different time of the year. It is seen that the

Figure 5

Framework for pressure optimization.

Figure 6

Alternative inlet pressure profiles analysed.

M. S. Babel et al. | Leakage management in a low pressure water

145

Table 6

Water Science & Technology: Water SupplyWSTWS | 9.2 | 2009

Savings from different inlet pressure profiles analysed

Profile

Average pressure (m)

Minimum LoS (m)

Total inflow (m3/d)

Savings (m3/d)

Saving (%)

Current operation

12.56

4.00

1,963

Pressure profile 1

7.35

6.00

1,651

312

15.89

Pressure profile 2

6.75

6.00

1,619

344

17.52

Pressure profile 3

7.50

4.20

1,659

304

15.50

model performs well in simulating inflow and pressure at

about 17.5% can be achieved in the DMA. It is, however,

critical point in the system with 97.5% or higher accuracy.

assumed here that the decrease in inflow into the system is

mainly due to reduction in pressure dependent leakage and
the pressure independent customer demand remains
constant.

ANALYSIS OF INLET PRESSURE PROFILE

ALTERNATIVES
The developed network hydraulic model is applied to
analyse

for

various

feasible

inlet

pressure

profile

alternatives. The alternatives are selected considering

other surrounding DMAs, available pressure and flow,
control of the pressure and others to optimize pressure in
the study area without affecting other areas. There is no
pressure reducing valve (PRV) in DMA-0144-01 and no
individual control in any DMA of the network. The whole
network is fed and controlled from a pumping station. To
ensure the minimum level of service (LoS), the pressure at
average zone point (AZP) and the pressure at critical point
(CP) are considered. Firstly, the pressure at AZP is checked
and if it satisfies the desired criteria then the pressure at
critical point is checked for desired level. As the study area
is relatively small and flat, emphasis has been given to the
pressure at critical point. The pressure optimization
procedure is shown in the Figure 5.
The inlet pressure profile alternatives analyzed includ-

IMPLEMENTATION RESULTS
It was not possible to operate the network following
exactly any of the suggested inlet pressure profiles due to
the lack of pressure reducing valves (PVR) and other
limitations in the study area. Therefore, MWA was
requested to reduce the pressure for few days without
significantly affecting the other DMAs in the network.
MWA controlled the pressure at the pumping station and
the actual reduced pressure profile implemented in the
field for 7 days from 14 to 20 March 2005 (Monday to
Sunday) is shown in Figure 7. The observed average
pressure and flow into the system before and after the
pressure change are presented in Table 7. The typical
pressure profile and inflow prior to the implementation
are those observed during 03 to 09 January 2005
(Monday to Sunday). Average pressure during the January

ing the current operation are shown in Figure 6. Although

the stated LoS of MWA is 6 m, the current operation
maintains a minimum LoS of 4 m with an average pressure
of 12.56 m. Pressure Profiles 1 and 2 are proposed with the
minimum LoS of 6 m with an average pressure of 7.35 and
6.75 m respectively. In Pressure Profile 3, the LoS at night is
maintained as 4 m and during daytime as 6 m. In Pressure
Profiles 1 and 3 pressures are time modulated whereas in
Pressure Profile 2 the inlet pressure is kept constant at
6.75 m. The analysis results presented in Table 6 indicate
that if Pressure Profile 2 is implemented a saving of water of

Figure 7

Comparison of current and implemented inlet pressure profiles.

M. S. Babel et al. | Leakage management in a low pressure water

146

Table 7

Water Science & Technology: Water SupplyWSTWS | 9.2 | 2009

Implementation results with reduced pressure profile

Flow (m3/d)

Average pressure (m)

Savings

Before change

After change

Average pressure

Before pressure

After pressure

Day

(Jan 2005)

(Mar 2005)

reduction (m)

change

change

12.95

10.86

2.09

2,013

1,740

273

13.56

12.28

10.68

1.60

2,044

1,777

267

13.06

13.78

09.92

3.87

2,001

1,773

228

11.39

11.68

10.09

1.60

2,033

1,782

251

12.35

11.80

10.14

1.65

2,016

1,751

265

13.14

12.30

09.53

2.77

1,956

1,778

178

09.10

13.42

10.17

3.26

2,078

1,772

306

14.73

2.42

14,140

12,372

1,768

12.50

12,632

1,508

10.67

Average/Total

Flow calculated from the model (m3/7d)

(m3/d)

(%)

period is 12.60 m whereas it was 10.20 m in the March

the pressure at the control point (at the pumping station)

period. The average pressure reduction is 2.4 m and the

based on their experience to achieve the reduced pressure

saving of water during this period is 12.5%. The total

profile at the inlet.

water saving in 7 days amounts to 1,768 m3, which is

3

In the implemented scenario the pressure at the inlet

equivalent to about 92,000 m /year. Moreover, the water

achieved during 00:00 to 04:00 was less than the normal

saving can be higher as reflected by the model results

profile (see Figure 7). It means that the pressure at the

(Table 6) if the suggested pressure profiles are applied.

control point (pumping station) was not sufficient to ensure

The model is run with the reduced pressure profile. The

a minimum pressure (00:00 to 4:00) of 4 m at inlet of the

model calculated inflow to the network during this period is

study area. Consequently, it was not possible to ensure

12,632 m , which is very close to the actually observed

3

inflow of 12,372 m . This clearly indicates the developed

minimum LoS at the critical point in the study area, which

may be the reason for the complaints.

model can be useful in managing the water supply system

and to improve the overall hydraulic performance,
especially with respect to controlling the leakage in the

CONCLUSION

network.

From this study, it is concluded that the network model

A field survey covering 30 households close to the

can be used to analyze the effect of pressure on leakage

critical pressure point was carried out immediately after

in the water distribution system. This model can be

the implementation of the reduced pressure to see its effect

applied to determine the flow and pressure in the

on

households

network and hence can help in increasing the efficiency

reported that they did not notice any change in pressure.

of water distribution network management. It is seen that

However, eight households complain for low pressure in

the small reduction of pressure can decrease the leakage

the night time. Since the study area is located quite far

significantly without compromising the level of service.

from the pumping station supplying water to several

Therefore, the pressure management is a promising

DMAs and as stated earlier there is no pressure control

solution to control leakage in the water distribution

device at the inlet of the study area, it was not possible to

network. However, the pressure management strategy

estimate the pressure required at the control point (at the

should consider the normal operating pressure, network

pumping station) which will ensure the desired pressure at

condition, availability of pressure control equipment and

the inlet point of the study network. MWA personnel set

customers satisfaction.

consumers

satisfaction.

Twenty-two

147

M. S. Babel et al. | Leakage management in a low pressure water

REFERENCES
Islam, M. S. 2005 Leakage Analysis and Management in the Water
Distribution Network in a Selected Area of Bangkok. Master
of Engineering Thesis, Asian Institute of Technology, Thailand.
Lambert, A. 2000 What do We Know about Pressure:
Leakage Relationships in Distribution Systems? IWA
Conference System Approach to Leakage Control and

Water Science & Technology: Water SupplyWSTWS | 9.2 | 2009

Water Distribution Systems Management in Brno, Czech

Republic in May 2000. IWA Conference Proceedings, ISBN
80-7204-197-5.
Metropolitan Waterworks Authority (MWA) homepage. http://
www.mwa.co.th (accessed 2 January 2005).
Rossman, L. A. 2000 EPANET2-Users Manual. Risk Reduction
Engineering Laboratory, U.S. Environmental Protection
Agency, Cincinnati, Ohio.