Assessment Of Urban Water Supply Challenges And Performance Measurement Of Water Distribution System: Case Study Of Metu Town

Abstract

Water is one of the main important components of the environment that life cannot sustain without. Therefore an activity that disturbs the provision and supply of water tends to disturb the very survival of humanity. However this century water supply of cities and towns facing challenges due to inadequacy and poor performance of water distribution system that in turn was affecting the life styles of urban society. As the result of poor and inadequacy of drinking water, the population of Metu Town is suffering from scarce water supply infrastructures and this hinders the day to day life of the society. The overall situation of drinking water supply system of the town facing challenges due to, rapid increase in population and poor performance of existing water distribution system. These reduce the quantity of drinking water. The general objective of this paper is to assess the challenges that are hindering water supply service and to measure the performance of the old water supply system For the analysis of this research, GPS, camera, GIS, water CAD heastad method version 6.5 and SPSS version 22 were used and questionnaire and interview were also done to know status of water supply, cost and performance of water supply. Based on the analysis, the major causes of water supply scarcities are, electricity outrage covering 70% of respondents idea followed by frequent brake down of pipe lines as 68% of the respondents opinion. Scarcity of water in Metu town causes impacts on life of households. The major impacts are, slowing down of commercial and domestic activities as 99% of the respondents replied and to the 2nd place it causes Risk in drinking of untreated water from open wells or surface waters. Those with this opinion counts to 97% of the household interviewed. The performance of the system based on the pressure and velocity shows that the system fails to perform good since 94.7% of the pipes falls below the allowable velocity range and the sedimentation problem occurred in the system Therefore improving service system and adequate follow up will be the best mechanic to solve water supply problem of the town.