Assessing Future Water Demand and Associated Energy Input with Plausible Scenarios for Water Service Providers (WSPs) in Sub-Saharan Africa

Pauline Macharia, Nzula Kitaka, Paul Yillia and Norbert Kreuzinger
Additional contact information
Pauline Macharia: Institute for Water and Resource Management, Faculty of Civil Engineering, Vienna University of Technology, Karlsplatz, 1040 Vienna, Austria
Nzula Kitaka: Biological Sciences Department, Faculty of Sciences, Egerton University, P.O. Box 536-20115, Egerton, Kenya
Paul Yillia: Water Security Research Group, Biodiversity and Natural Resources Program, International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA), Schlossplatz 1, 2361 Laxenburg, Austria
Norbert Kreuzinger: Institute for Water and Resource Management, Faculty of Civil Engineering, Vienna University of Technology, Karlsplatz, 1040 Vienna, Austria

Energies, 2021, vol. 14, issue 8, 1-22

Abstract: This study examined the current state of water demand and associated energy input for water supply against a projected increase in water demand in sub-Saharan Africa. Three plausible scenarios, namely, Current State Extends ( CSE ), Current State Improves ( CSI ) and Current State Deteriorates ( CSD ) were developed and applied using nine quantifiable indicators for water demand projections and the associated impact on energy input for water supply for five Water Service Providers (WSPs) in Kenya to demonstrate the feasibility of the approach based on real data in sub-Saharan Africa. Currently, the daily per capita water-use in the service area of four of the five WSPs was below minimum daily requirement of 50 L/p/d. Further, non-revenue water losses were up to three times higher than the regulated benchmark (range 26–63%). Calculations showed a leakage reduction potential of up to 70% and energy savings of up to 12 MWh/a. The projected water demand is expected to increase by at least twelve times the current demand to achieve universal coverage and an average daily per capita consumption of 120 L/p/d for the urban population by 2030. Consequently, the energy input could increase almost twelve-folds with the CSI scenario or up to fifty-folds with the CSE scenario for WSPs where desalination or additional groundwater abstraction is proposed. The approach used can be applied for other WSPs which are experiencing a similar evolution of their water supply and demand drivers in sub-Saharan Africa. WSPs in the sub-region should explore aggressive strategies to jointly address persistent water losses and associated energy input. This would reduce the current water supply-demand gap and minimize the energy input that will be associated with exploring additional water sources that are typically energy intensive.

Keywords: drinking water supply; energy input; future water demand; water demand-supply gap; water service providers (WSPs) (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q Q0 Q4 Q40 Q41 Q42 Q43 Q47 Q48 Q49 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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