KOICA - CTS 2 Seminar on Non-Revenue Water (NRW) Management in Seoul and Daejeon, South Korea
CTS 2 Seminar on Non-Revenue Water (NRW) Management: Strategic Insights from the CTS 2 Seminar in South Korea
Daejeon & Seoul, July 22–27, 2024
Across emerging markets, water utilities face a shared challenge: how to sustainably deliver reliable service amid increasing demand, aging infrastructure, and financial pressure. In this context, non-revenue water (NRW) emerges not merely as a technical issue, but as a structural inefficiency that directly constrains operational performance and economic resilience.
Indonesia illustrates the scale of this challenge. With national NRW levels averaging between 30 to 45 percent, utilities lose hundreds of millions of cubic meters of treated water each year. These losses translate into more than USD 400 million in unrealized revenue annually, while also masking underlying inefficiencies in asset management, leakage control, and service equity. The case for action is clear—and increasingly, so is the roadmap.
To address this, the Creative Technology Solution Seed 2 (CTS 2) program, an initiative led by the Korea International Cooperation Agency (KOICA) and WI.Plat Co., Ltd., hosted a focused seminar on NRW management in Daejeon and Seoul, South Korea. Over the course of six days, Indonesian utility leaders and infrastructure stakeholders engaged directly with South Korea’s high-performing utility systems, exploring not only the technologies that enable performance but also the institutional frameworks that sustain them.
The Indonesian delegation included decision-makers from PDAM Surya Sembada (Surabaya), PDAM Tirta Giri Nata (Cirebon), PDAM Tirtawening (Bandung), SUPRA International Indonesia, and the Indonesian Water Supply Association (PERPAMSI). Together, they examined South Korea’s integrated approach to NRW built over three decades of investment, reform, and system design, and evaluated how these models can be adapted to Indonesian conditions.
What differentiates South Korea’s NRW performance is not merely its low loss rate, below 10 percent nationally, with Daejeon and Seoul achieving rates between 3 to 5 percent, but the operating model that makes these figures possible. Korean utilities have transitioned from reactive maintenance to predictive, data-enabled operations.
At the core of this system is a suite of interlinked technologies: AI-driven leak detection, IoT-enabled pressure and flow sensors, real-time smart metering, and GIS-integrated asset management platforms. These tools enable utilities to detect anomalies within minutes, isolate leak points within specific zones, and execute repairs with precision, often within 24 hours, compared to response times of up to 12 days in many Indonesian cities.
Moreover, Korea’s nationwide digital infrastructure ensures that performance data flows not only within utilities but also to regulators, funding agencies, and technology providers. This visibility allows for more informed capital planning, performance benchmarking, and public accountability, functions that remain fragmented in many developing utility markets.
Technology alone cannot deliver sustained impact without governance frameworks that enforce performance standards and align incentives. Korea’s water utilities operate within a system where investment decisions are tied to measurable outcomes, specifically return on investment, service reliability, and long-term asset integrity.
Every NRW-related capital allocation is supported by data: financial models project cost recovery over multi-year periods, while service delivery metrics track reductions in physical losses and improvements in billing accuracy. These models have enabled Korean utilities to justify infrastructure upgrades, attract concessional financing, and maintain public trust, key ingredients for sustainable utility reform.
Participants from Indonesia reviewed these frameworks in detail, particularly the mechanisms through which Korea integrates NRW goals into broader national planning. From ministerial-level coordination to local utility execution, the Korean model ensures that NRW targets are more than aspirational, they are embedded in policy, enforced through regulation, and resourced through predictable funding flows.
Perhaps the most critical insight from the CTS 2 seminar was that performance transformation in the water sector requires ecosystem coordination. Korea’s approach rests on the alignment of four core actors: utilities, technology providers, government agencies, and financing institutions. These entities operate with shared objectives, interoperable data systems, and standardized protocols, allowing initiatives to move from pilot to system-wide deployment in structured, time-bound cycles.
Indonesia’s water sector, while diverse and ambitious, has often struggled to coordinate across these boundaries. Pilot programs are common, but mechanisms for institutionalizing success remain limited. The seminar reinforced the importance of building a governance platform that facilitates replication, enables performance-based contracting, and scales innovation across regions.
For PERPAMSI and SUPRA International Indonesia, this means not only sharing knowledge but building enabling conditions: legal frameworks for joint implementation, digital architecture for performance monitoring, and shared financing strategies for NRW projects. SUPRA, in particular, sees its role as an integrator, bringing together digital tools, utility operations, and implementation capacity to ensure technology adoption leads to measurable results.
The economic impact of NRW reform is both immediate and long-term. A 10 percent reduction in NRW across Indonesia’s top 50 cities could yield USD 100 million annually in recoverable water alone. Additionally, utilities would benefit from deferred capital expenditure, lower pumping energy costs, improved chemical efficiency, and extended network lifespans.
Just as critical, improved service reliability could reduce customer complaints by 30 to 50 percent, strengthen public perception of utility performance, and enhance political will to support sector reform. These benefits extend beyond water, it is a multiplier for social equity, economic competitiveness, and environmental sustainability.
The CTS 2 seminar did more than expose Indonesian stakeholders to global best practice. It offered a model for how structured international collaboration can drive sector transformation. Through targeted learning, joint diagnostics, and peer engagement, participants left with a shared vision and practical tools to act.
The next step lies in execution: translating these insights into institutional commitments, regulatory action, and investment programs that deliver outcomes at scale. SUPRA, PDAMs, and PERPAMSI are already identifying pilot zones for adaptation, with a focus on real-time monitoring, pressure management, and performance-based NRW contracting. KOICA and WI.Plat have signaled ongoing support to guide the next phase of implementation.
Indonesia does not need to start from zero. It now has access to proven models, tested technologies, and an ecosystem of partners committed to measurable results. The challenge, and opportunity, is to embed these elements into a national strategy that treats NRW as technical problem to be contained and as a strategic lever for unlocking the future of water services in the country.
Daejeon & Seoul, July 22–27, 2024
Across emerging markets, water utilities face a shared challenge: how to sustainably deliver reliable service amid increasing demand, aging infrastructure, and financial pressure. In this context, non-revenue water (NRW) emerges not merely as a technical issue, but as a structural inefficiency that directly constrains operational performance and economic resilience.
Indonesia illustrates the scale of this challenge. With national NRW levels averaging between 30 to 45 percent, utilities lose hundreds of millions of cubic meters of treated water each year. These losses translate into more than USD 400 million in unrealized revenue annually, while also masking underlying inefficiencies in asset management, leakage control, and service equity. The case for action is clear—and increasingly, so is the roadmap.
To address this, the Creative Technology Solution Seed 2 (CTS 2) program, an initiative led by the Korea International Cooperation Agency (KOICA) and WI.Plat Co., Ltd., hosted a focused seminar on NRW management in Daejeon and Seoul, South Korea. Over the course of six days, Indonesian utility leaders and infrastructure stakeholders engaged directly with South Korea’s high-performing utility systems, exploring not only the technologies that enable performance but also the institutional frameworks that sustain them.
The Indonesian delegation included decision-makers from PDAM Surya Sembada (Surabaya), PDAM Tirta Giri Nata (Cirebon), PDAM Tirtawening (Bandung), SUPRA International Indonesia, and the Indonesian Water Supply Association (PERPAMSI). Together, they examined South Korea’s integrated approach to NRW built over three decades of investment, reform, and system design, and evaluated how these models can be adapted to Indonesian conditions.
What differentiates South Korea’s NRW performance is not merely its low loss rate, below 10 percent nationally, with Daejeon and Seoul achieving rates between 3 to 5 percent, but the operating model that makes these figures possible. Korean utilities have transitioned from reactive maintenance to predictive, data-enabled operations.
At the core of this system is a suite of interlinked technologies: AI-driven leak detection, IoT-enabled pressure and flow sensors, real-time smart metering, and GIS-integrated asset management platforms. These tools enable utilities to detect anomalies within minutes, isolate leak points within specific zones, and execute repairs with precision, often within 24 hours, compared to response times of up to 12 days in many Indonesian cities.
Moreover, Korea’s nationwide digital infrastructure ensures that performance data flows not only within utilities but also to regulators, funding agencies, and technology providers. This visibility allows for more informed capital planning, performance benchmarking, and public accountability, functions that remain fragmented in many developing utility markets.
Technology alone cannot deliver sustained impact without governance frameworks that enforce performance standards and align incentives. Korea’s water utilities operate within a system where investment decisions are tied to measurable outcomes, specifically return on investment, service reliability, and long-term asset integrity.
Every NRW-related capital allocation is supported by data: financial models project cost recovery over multi-year periods, while service delivery metrics track reductions in physical losses and improvements in billing accuracy. These models have enabled Korean utilities to justify infrastructure upgrades, attract concessional financing, and maintain public trust, key ingredients for sustainable utility reform.
Participants from Indonesia reviewed these frameworks in detail, particularly the mechanisms through which Korea integrates NRW goals into broader national planning. From ministerial-level coordination to local utility execution, the Korean model ensures that NRW targets are more than aspirational, they are embedded in policy, enforced through regulation, and resourced through predictable funding flows.
Perhaps the most critical insight from the CTS 2 seminar was that performance transformation in the water sector requires ecosystem coordination. Korea’s approach rests on the alignment of four core actors: utilities, technology providers, government agencies, and financing institutions. These entities operate with shared objectives, interoperable data systems, and standardized protocols, allowing initiatives to move from pilot to system-wide deployment in structured, time-bound cycles.
Indonesia’s water sector, while diverse and ambitious, has often struggled to coordinate across these boundaries. Pilot programs are common, but mechanisms for institutionalizing success remain limited. The seminar reinforced the importance of building a governance platform that facilitates replication, enables performance-based contracting, and scales innovation across regions.
For PERPAMSI and SUPRA International Indonesia, this means not only sharing knowledge but building enabling conditions: legal frameworks for joint implementation, digital architecture for performance monitoring, and shared financing strategies for NRW projects. SUPRA, in particular, sees its role as an integrator, bringing together digital tools, utility operations, and implementation capacity to ensure technology adoption leads to measurable results.
The economic impact of NRW reform is both immediate and long-term. A 10 percent reduction in NRW across Indonesia’s top 50 cities could yield USD 100 million annually in recoverable water alone. Additionally, utilities would benefit from deferred capital expenditure, lower pumping energy costs, improved chemical efficiency, and extended network lifespans.
Just as critical, improved service reliability could reduce customer complaints by 30 to 50 percent, strengthen public perception of utility performance, and enhance political will to support sector reform. These benefits extend beyond water, it is a multiplier for social equity, economic competitiveness, and environmental sustainability.
The CTS 2 seminar did more than expose Indonesian stakeholders to global best practice. It offered a model for how structured international collaboration can drive sector transformation. Through targeted learning, joint diagnostics, and peer engagement, participants left with a shared vision and practical tools to act.
The next step lies in execution: translating these insights into institutional commitments, regulatory action, and investment programs that deliver outcomes at scale. SUPRA, PDAMs, and PERPAMSI are already identifying pilot zones for adaptation, with a focus on real-time monitoring, pressure management, and performance-based NRW contracting. KOICA and WI.Plat have signaled ongoing support to guide the next phase of implementation.
Indonesia does not need to start from zero. It now has access to proven models, tested technologies, and an ecosystem of partners committed to measurable results. The challenge, and opportunity, is to embed these elements into a national strategy that treats NRW as technical problem to be contained and as a strategic lever for unlocking the future of water services in the country.
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