Index of vulnerability to water losses (IVuPA): conception and application

Abstract

The search for sustainability is on the rise, especially in academia, which has been producing concepts and tools for this purpose. In Brazil, treated water is often wasted in supply systems. As well as water, all the inputs used for its treatment are also lost. Supply systems can show themselves vulnerable to their losses due to economic, regulatory, technical, and social factors. They operate constantly, and their sequence of operation can be understood by three fundamental chains: the availability and capacity to collect water, the capacity to transform raw water into treated water and distribute it, and the capacity to convert treated water into a financial resource. To objectively assess this vulnerability, the Water Loss Vulnerability Index (IVuPa) was proposed, composed of 6 indicators with different weights and public information to evaluate and classify the municipalities of the state of São Paulo. The application of IVuPa classified 7 municipalities as Extremely vulnerable, 125 as Very vulnerable, 128 as Considerably vulnerable, 162 as Slightly vulnerable, 193 as Insignificant vulnerable, and 30 as without information. The isolated evaluation of these results indicates a reasonable scenario for the state of São Paulo. However, the distribution of the resident population in the classified municipalities is 1.18% as Extremely vulnerable, 62.42% as Very vulnerable, 19.38% as Considerably vulnerable, 8.86% as Slightly vulnerable, 6.76% as Insignificant vulnerable, and 0.71% as without information. These results indicate a worrying scenario for the state of São Paulo.