IMPLEMENTATION OF A WATER DEMAND MANAGEMENT PROGRAMME IN DURBAN, SOUTH AFRICA  Simon Scruton, Pr Eng BScEng Civil, SOUTH AFRICA, Durban Metro Water Services. (eThekwini Water Services) Email:- simonsc  Abstract Since National and Local Government restructuring in 1994, the operational area of the eThekwini (Durban) Municipality has increased by over 1000%. This area is very diverse in terms of infrastructure, topography, affluence and level of service with the records of some of the areas that were inherited varying from non-existent to totally inaccurate. One of the National Government’s service delivery objectives is to provide every household with a supply of potable water. In addition, every customer is given the first 6kl / month for free. A further complication was that, prior to the first democratic elections in 1994, the boycotting of payment for services was used as a political instrument to pressurise officials in power and subsequently illegal connections are rife. Apart from the increased demand on the available water resources, the narrowing of the revenue streams has necessitated the need for an effective water demand management strategy.  In order to delay the construction of new bulk infrastructure and subsequent cost increases, it was quickly realised that the projected water demand needed to be held at current levels in the short term. It is against this backdrop that the Non-Revenue Water Department of eThekwini Water Services has been created. Using the approach and methodology adopted by the International Water Association as the model for benchmarking and reporting, the Infrastructure Leakage Index (ILI) at commencement of the programme was calculated as being 9,8. Although the number of consumers is growing, the increase in demand has been checked and the ILI has been reduced to 6,6. These demand reductions were primarily achieved through pressure management, improvement in billing records and leak detection. Ongoing Non-Revenue Water reduction initiatives are contributing towards realising the short-term target ILI value of 5,0.