Water Board earns nothing on a quarter of the water it supplies

The National Water Supply and Drainage Board earned no revenue from nearly a quarter of the water it supplied in the first half of 2026, according to the Finance Ministry's mid-year fiscal report.

Non-revenue water stood at 24.4 percent, marginally higher than the 24.2 percent reported for the same period last year. The losses come from leakages, illegal connections, metering inaccuracies and authorised but unbilled connections.

The board added nearly 60,000 connections in the six months, taking the total to 3.31 million by the end of June. Piped-water coverage stood at 62.8 percent and safe drinking water coverage at 94.5 percent; the lower figures compared with last year are due to a change from household-based to population-based reporting, the report says.

Revenue rose 5.1 percent to 43.6 billion rupees, but the cost of sales grew about 10 percent to 16.5 billion rupees on higher pumping costs, rents and taxes. Net profit fell 8.5 percent to 16.2 billion rupees from 17.7 billion a year earlier, while the average unit cost rose to 88 rupees from 82 rupees.

Water production and sales each grew around 5 percent in the period.