Historically, considerable effort has gone into the promotion of water conservation and efficiency, and these efforts have resulted in major advances in research, public education, use of water efficient fixtures in the home and workplace, improved irrigation practices, and expanded use of climate-appropriate landscaping.  These practices are characterized as demand-side conservation.

Public water suppliers also have a major responsibility to manage water responsibly and efficiently on the supply side.  Supply side conservation (reducing losses from the distribution system) requires that we accurately quantify and control distribution system losses. 

If losses from distribution networks can be effectively reduced and controlled in a sustainable manner, the recovered losses effectively represent an alternative major new source of water that will almost invariably be more economic than developing expensive new water supplies. 

It makes economic and environmental sense to recover lost water and revenue in order to mitigate the effects of drought and water shortages, and avoid the cost of expensive supply infrastructure.  The recent water shortages highlight the importance of taking these issues seriously. 

Miami-Dade has an aggressive water loss reduction program and it has currently enhanced this program as part of the 20-Year Water Use Permit issued by the South Florida Water Management District in November 2007.
Through this aggressive program, Miami-Dade will be able to provide over 14.25 million gallons of water per day by 2017. 

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