EAP - The Pacific Infrastructure Challenge - World Bank (2006).pdf

Efficiency
To get an understanding of the relative efficiency of water utilities in Pacific countries, we
examined utility staffing levels and non-revenue water for utilities where data were available.
Figure A.19 shows non-revenue water for five Pacific countries and two comparator
countries. Non-revenue water is an important measure of efficiency. It refers to the
difference between system input volume and the billed or authorized consumption, and
includes unbilled consumption from faulty meters, illegal connections or under-billing as
well as physical losses from leakages and overflows 43 .
Figure A.19: Non-Revenue Water
70%
60%
Non-Revenue Water (%)
50%
40%
30%
20%
10%
0%
Vanuatu
St. Lucia
PNG
Marshall Islands
Pohnpei (FSM)
Yap (FSM)
Kosrae (FSM)
Dominica
Kiribati
Solomon Islands
Fiji
Samoa
Jamaica
Source: Castalia interviews and Pacific Water Association 2001 Benchmarking Survey
Notes: PNG: Papua New Guinea, FSM: Federated States of Micronesia, Vanuatu figures are for Port Vila
Water utilities in many emerging markets are able to achieve levels of between 20% - 30%
non revenue water. Of the Pacific countries, Vanuatu performs best with losses of less than
25%. Samoa, Fiji, Solomon Islands and Kiribati perform worst with estimated losses of
between 40% and 55%, although in the case of Kiribati, loss levels have significantly reduced
from 60% following the rehabilitation of a major pipe to Betio.
High staffing levels are another indicator of inefficiency. Figure A.20 shows that with the
exception of Vanuatu, Palau and Fiji, the Pacific water utilities all have over 10 staff per 1000
connections.
43 We have used the term non-revenue water in this paper instead of unaccounted for water. Statistics for
Marshall Islands, PNG, Fiji and Kiribati are “non revenue water” and Vanuatu, St Lucia and Jamaica are
“unaccounted for water”.
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