The Peruvian Government has embarked on a major rehabilitation program for its
water and wastewater system. SEDAPAL is the governmental agency in charge of the
operation and maintenance of the water and sewerage system in Lima, Peru. The
agency provides services to approximately seven million people. Due to the
magnitude of the system and the shortage of adequate personnel and equipment, the
system has not received optimal maintenance, resulting in a high percentage of
unaccounted-for water, low pressure conditions, and less than perfect water
quality. The program study area of approximately of 21.6 square miles is located
within Lima's metropolitan area. A total of ten districts, similar in size to
cities in other countries, are included in the study area. Part of the
rehabilitation program includes the preparation of a computer model of the water
distribution system. Specific sections of the system were selected as being
representative of the system as a whole to be used for detailed field analysis. The
primary purpose of the field analysis was to determine representative pipeline
coefficients of friction to use in the model and therefore, areas with one
specific type of pipe material and those known to include advanced pipe age
conditions were selected for investigation in the field. The model incorporates
all the physical characteristics of the distribution system, including pipeline
lengths, diameters, materials of construction, elevations, and coefficients of
friction (roughness coefficients). For each area tested in the field,
measurements were made for the total flow consumption into the area and for
pressure values at specific points distributed throughout the area. The results
of the field measurements were compared to the results of the system model. This
comparison assisted in the determination of the theoretical coefficient of
friction for each pipe material, and also assisted in performing necessary
adjustments to the amount of flow consumption based on high water losses and
unexpected consumption conditions. This paper focuses on the interactive approach
between field measurements and network model results for water distribution
systems that experience high rates of water loss and that have minimal amounts of
historical information available. Includes tables, figures.