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Service 11

Water Audit
Measure before you manage.

Comprehensive water balance auditing across industrial, agricultural and municipal systems — quantifying consumption, isolating losses, and identifying the efficiency measures that pay back fastest.

Water balanceNon-revenue waterLeak detectionESG reportingIWA method10–18 days
At a glance
10–18 days
Standard delivery
IWA
Balance framework
NRW
Headline metric
Every audit includes
  • Full IWA water balance — input to end use
  • Non-revenue water quantified and disaggregated
  • Real vs apparent loss separation
  • Cost-ranked efficiency intervention list
  • Named engineer · Post-delivery support
IWA / AWWA
Audit framework
ILI
Performance index
CDP / GRI
Reporting alignment
10–18 days
Delivery
What it is

Water Audit — what HYDRisk delivers.

A water audit reconciles every litre entering a system against every litre accounted for at the point of use. The gap between the two is loss — and until it is measured, disaggregated and costed, no efficiency programme can be prioritised with any confidence.

HYDRisk audits follow the International Water Association water balance structure, the same framework used by AWWA and by utility regulators worldwide. Crucially, we separate real losses from apparent losses — physical leakage behaves nothing like meter under-registration or unbilled consumption, and the two demand entirely different remedies.

Audits cover industrial facilities, agricultural schemes, municipal distribution networks and mixed-use developments. Where metering is sparse, we design a temporary monitoring campaign to close the balance rather than filling gaps with assumptions.

The output is a defensible water balance with a cost-ranked list of interventions — suitable for board approval, regulator submission, and ESG disclosure under CDP Water Security or GRI 303.

Why a water audit matters
“An unmeasured loss is an unmanaged cost — and increasingly, an unanswered question from your lender.”
IWA/AWWA framework — not an ad-hoc spreadsheet
Real and apparent losses separated
Every intervention costed and ranked by payback
CDP and GRI 303 disclosure-ready
Why it matters

Four reasons this service is critical to your project.

Understanding what this study delivers — and what happens without it — is the fastest way to evaluate whether your project needs it.

Losses hide in the gap between billing and abstraction
Most operators know what they pay for and what they bill, but not what happens in between. Non-revenue water routinely runs at 20–40% in unaudited systems.
Lenders now ask for NRW before they ask for anything else
Under IFC PS3 and ESG-linked facilities, resource efficiency is a condition of drawdown. An unquantified water balance is a diligence finding.
Efficiency spend goes to the wrong place without it
Capital committed to treatment upgrades while a third of throughput leaks from the network is capital wasted. An audit sequences the spend correctly.
Abstraction limits are tightening in every market we work in
Where permits are being cut, the operators who can evidence efficiency keep their allocation. Those who cannot lose it first.
What we deliver

Specific deliverables — not vague promises.

Every HYDRisk study produces a defined set of technical outputs — here is exactly what you receive.

Technical analysis outputs
  • Full IWA water balance — system input to authorised consumption
  • Non-revenue water volume and percentage
  • Real vs apparent loss split with confidence bands
  • Infrastructure Leakage Index and sector benchmarking
  • Meter accuracy assessment and under-registration estimate
  • End-use disaggregation by process, area or asset
Report & data deliverables
  • Water audit report — methodology, data quality, findings
  • Water balance schematic — Sankey flow diagram
  • Cost-ranked intervention register with payback periods
  • Metering gap analysis and monitoring plan
  • ESG disclosure extract — CDP Water Security, GRI 303
  • Editable water balance workbook for ongoing tracking
Data deliverables: Water balance workbook in Excel, Sankey schematic in vector format, intervention register with unit costs. Site metering data returned in CSV.
Request a scope →
Tools & methodology

Recognised frameworks. Auditable numbers.

Every method we apply is one a regulator, lender or third-party assurance provider will already recognise.

IWA Water Balance
International Water Association
The standard water balance structure, giving a consistent, comparable definition of every loss category.
Loss categoriesNRW
AWWA M36 / WLCC
American Water Works Association
Loss control methodology and data-grading, producing the Infrastructure Leakage Index and validity score.
ILIData grading
CDP & GRI 303
Disclosure standards
Audit outputs mapped directly to the water disclosure fields your ESG reporting already requires.
CDP WaterGRI 303

Step-by-step methodology

Step 01
System boundary definition
Agreeing what is inside the audit — abstraction points, imports, storage, process areas and discharge.
Step 02
Data collection & grading
Meter records, billing data, pump logs and abstraction returns gathered and graded for reliability.
Step 03
Site survey & monitoring
Walkover survey, meter verification and, where the balance will not close, a temporary logging campaign.
Step 04
Water balance construction
IWA balance assembled, losses split into real and apparent, uncertainty carried through every line.
Step 05
Benchmarking & ILI
Performance indexed against sector norms so the result is interpretable, not just a number in isolation.
Step 06
Intervention register
Every measure costed, volume saved estimated, and the list ranked by payback for board sign-off.
Regional applicability

Calibrated for your region and regulatory framework.

Abstraction rules, tariff structures and disclosure expectations differ between geographies. HYDRisk delivers the right approach for every region.

India — Core market
CGWA-aligned auditing
Groundwater abstraction compliance, industrial water audit norms and state pollution board requirements.
Regulatory frameworks
CGWACPCB / SPCB
  • NOC renewal evidence for groundwater abstraction
  • Mandatory industrial water audit support
  • Zero Liquid Discharge balance integration
Middle East & GCC
Scarcity-weighted auditing
Desalinated supply cost modelling, TSE reuse accounting and high-evaporation loss estimation.
Regulatory frameworks
RSB / DEWAEstidama
  • Desalinated water unit-cost loss valuation
  • Treated sewage effluent reuse in the balance
  • UAE, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Oman coverage
International
Lender-facing auditing
IFC PS3 resource efficiency evidence, Equator Principles reporting and third-party assurance support.
Regulatory frameworks
IFC PS3Equator Principles
  • Resource efficiency evidence for drawdown conditions
  • CDP Water Security and GRI 303 extracts
  • Remote delivery — any geography covered
Related services

Services often commissioned alongside this study.

Service 12
Water Neutrality
The audit establishes the baseline footprint that any credible neutrality target has to be measured against.
View service →
Service 05
Drainage & Site Engineering
Runoff capture and reuse identified in the audit is delivered through drainage and SuDS design.
View service →
Service 01
Flood Risk Assessment
Lenders increasingly require water audit and flood risk assessment as a single ESG evidence package.
View service →

Ready to commission a water audit?

Tell us your site, sector and what metering you already have. We will scope the audit and have a fixed-fee proposal within 24 hours.

Get a free consultation →
Proposal within 24hFixed-fee pricingNo obligation