Brazilian Utility Reduces Water Loss by 57%

Located on the east side of the São Paulo Metropolitan Area, the Passagem Funda system (Cidade Tiradentes & Santa Etelvina Sectors) distributes water to 240,000 residents. High pressures, with topographic differences of up to 100 metres, and illegal service connections had been contributing to water losses of 880 litres per service connection per day. Sabesp's use of Bentley's software helped to decrease these losses to 376 litres per service connection per day.

During the planning of this water system optimisation project, Sabesp used WaterCAD to

identify high pressure areas in the system, simulate the impact of the implementation of pressure reducing valves in neighboring areas, analyse segments affected by ongoing construction, set optimal operational parameters, identify areas for water loss prospecting, with a view to detecting nonvisible underground leaks.

Nivaldo Rodrigues, Sabesp East Business Unit Department Manager, said, "The enormous success of this project led to our decision to deploy these robust software applications throughout our East Business Unit. By next year, we expect to have a hydraulic model for 100 percent of the water system, encompassing the entire 6,000-kilometre distribution network. With the use of Bentley's software tools, we were able to optimize our systems and achieve great results."

All told, Sabesp is responsible for supplying potable water to 27.2 million people and sanitation to 19.5 million people in the São Paulo Metropolitan Area. Today, the utility's engineering, planning, and operations teams in the East Business Unit are using not only WaterCAD, but also Bentley's WaterGEMS product for distribution modelling and management, HAMMER product for transient analysis, and SewerCAD product for sanitary sewer analysis and design.