Search of physical losses through acoustic methods - A SABESP focus

Abstract

Loss control is a harmonic set of activities carried out by a basic sanitation company with the fixed purpose to reach and maintain the level of its components of losses due to escapes, bursts, overflows, clandestine use of water, wastes, operational uses, special uses, metering inaccuracy and estimated mistakes at the lowest possible level in terms of technical, economical, financial, institutional, political and social viability. Concerns and use of techniques seeking to reduce loss of water are very well known in England where such studies started in the fifties with the participation of Brazilian technicians; particularly in Sabesp - Companhia de Saneamento Básico do Estado de São Paulo, these initiatives were commenced in the late seventies through resources financed by the now extinct BNH - Banco Nacional da Habitação. To achieve these goals strong qualification of available human resources is mandatory, what may be attained through personnel development planning and persistent training in addition to the use of adequate technology, among which acoustic search methods are emphasized along with specifically dedicated equipment. In this way, Sabesp has offered its technicians theoretical and practical qualification to enable them to use acoustic techniques to search physical losses in its supply systems, which is the experience presented in this work.