Water wastage in urban areas is about 50%: Govt

"Several studies for water losses, commonly called non revenue water (NRW), indicate that it varies from 30 to 50 per cent (in urban areas). The result of a pilot study in 28 cities in 2008-09 indicate the average NRW as 39 per cent," Water Resources minister Pawan Kumar Bansal told Lok Sabha today in reply to a query.

"Ministry of Urban Development has informed that water is lost from urban water supply systems due to leakages (in pipelines), theft, illegal connections. In some cases, water loss is due to due to non metering or incorrect metering," he said.