Water covers over 70% of the Earth’s surface and yet drinking water has never been a more precious resource.
A rapidly increasing global population paired with the climate crisis causing extreme weather events is putting a strain on water resources, with 25 countries, which represent a quarter of the world’s population, facing extremely high water stress.1
Responses to the global water shortage
Many regions across the world are installing desalination plants to optimize water management and ensure the security of drinking water supply.2 Desalination involves removing saline from water, typically via a process called reverse osmosis.
While desalination effectively creates a new water source, the process produces waste and toxic chemicals that are harmful to wildlife and the planet. It’s an expensive operation to run and with water customers footing the bill this pushes the price of water up as a result.
When supply fails to meet demand
Unsurprisingly, theft activity can be linked to any commodity when security of supply is under threat. For example, a 400% increase in European oil theft between 2013 and 2016 (see Figure 2) can be linked to the region’s increasing oil prices.3 Similarly, the introduction of a deregulation policy in Mexico in 2017 caused immediate fuel price hikes,4 which resulted in a 38% increase in year on year recorded pipeline thefts.5
In response to the global water shortage, we’re already seeing the theft of water from networks increase with a range of approaches.
The slash and grab approach
This approach to theft is very basic, involving breaking into the pipeline to quickly extract water, usually leaving the pipeline damaged and sometimes causing catastrophic pipeline failure.
Heatwaves paired with acute water shortages in India have led to more line walks and an increased police presence due to threats of pipeline tampering and theft on Delhi’s rising mains. Pipeline tampering is a characteristic of the “slash and grab” theft approach where the drivers are basic human needs, in Delhi’s case being drinking water.7
The technique is also characterized by poor installations, which can be seen in a bout of water theft in the USA committed by illegal cannabis growers and other thieves who broke into secure water facilities, drilled into pipelines and threatened utility workers with violence.8
The try and remain hidden approach
Compared with “slash and grab”, this approach typically utilizes a more sophisticated operation, with thieves carefully installing illegal connections to water pipelines and operating them subtly to avoid detection. These kinds of operations make it difficult for theft activity to be noticed as they often mimic genuine operational behaviors.
These sophisticated theft operations are often seen in organized crime groups, which can be large and involve corrupt individuals.
In Mexico, water theft operations are sophisticated and have been known to include a range of construction equipment, uniforms matching those worn by water companies in the country and getaway vehicles. These organized crime networks also sell the water illegally.9
A winery in Australia has recently received a record fine after tapping into an irrigation pipeline to extract approximately 365 million liters of water. The business owners bypassed metering equipment and buried their illegal pipework underground to avoid detection. This occurred during a period of drought in the region.10
The global water shortage combined with a challenging economic landscape results in water becoming less affordable and can be directly linked to increased water theft across the world, even in the UK.
The environmental, regulatory and social impacts of water theft
Environmental
The theft from a water network impacts the surrounding environment by way of exacerbating water scarcity and limiting access to the resource. Theft events also result in an increase in pump speed to ensure demand is met, consuming more energy in the process.
Regulatory
Water companies typically don’t have theft detection instrumentation installed so any water loss from theft activity is typically fielded into leakage figures. Ruptures caused by poorly executed theft attempts can increase water supply interruptions to customers which is another regulatory focus.
If water companies fail to meet their regulatory performance commitments, they can incur fines and penalties.
Social
When utilities are unable to recoup the costs associated with water theft, customers can bear the brunt of it with increased bills in line with shrinkage.11 This risks creating conflicts between utilities and their customers and causing reputational damage to the utilities, which can also worsen when thefts cause pipeline ruptures, resulting in interruptions to water supply.
Transient monitoring is the solution
In the face of rising pipeline theft associated with water scarcity, a theft detection system with transient monitoring capabilities will be a fundamental part of the solution.
When a leak occurs in a water network, pumps ramp up, a valve is closed quickly or pipeline theft activity happens, each has its own unique pressure signature.
Identifying the pressure signature of water theft requires high resolution data that sees deeper into transient activities so the system can alarm quickly enough for utilities to get to the theft site.
To learn more about our transient monitoring solution, contact us.
References available on Atmos’ site.
