Water restrictions in Nikšić are highlighting a deeper weakness in Montenegro’s utility system, where around 68% of water entering municipal networks is estimated to become non-revenue water.
Nikšić’s water utility said drought and poor hydrological conditions had forced rotating restrictions, leaving some neighbourhoods without supply for up to 16 hours a day. Losses in the city’s network have been estimated at about 71%.
The figures suggest Montenegro’s water challenge is not only about securing new sources, but also about reducing losses from ageing networks, weak metering and billing gaps.
That is creating a market for district metering, acoustic leak detection, pressure management, smart meters, GIS network mapping and SCADA upgrades.
Reducing leakage can effectively create additional supply without building new reservoirs or abstraction systems. It can also lower pumping and treatment costs and improve utility revenues.
The issue is becoming more urgent as drought makes existing losses harder to absorb.
Montenegro is preparing a new water-services and climate-resilience investment programme backed by the World Bank, with financing expected to support improvements in reliability, efficiency and network management.
The programme could push utilities away from emergency pipe repairs towards systematic loss reduction.
For contractors, that would favour engineering companies able to combine field inspection with hydraulic modelling, digital monitoring and asset-management systems.
Performance-based contracts could also emerge, with private operators paid partly according to verified reductions in water losses rather than only for installed equipment.
The investment case is increasingly clear.
A utility that loses nearly seven litres out of every 10 it produces has little resilience when source availability falls.
Montenegro may still need new water infrastructure, but reducing leakage is becoming one of the cheapest forms of additional supply and climate adaptation available.
At 68% non-revenue water, network efficiency is no longer a maintenance issue. It is an infrastructure priority.
