Roland Liemberger (1958 – 2023)
Back to Basics
With great sadness, we learned the news that Roland Liemberger passed away on Thursday, May 18, 2023.
Roland is known as one of the founding fathers of the International Water Association’s Water Loss Specialist Group (IWA-WLSG) and dedicated his life to raising awareness about water loss issues worldwide. He worked in 40 different countries and designed and supported Non-Revenue Water (NRW) management training courses in many of them.
Roland leaves behind a legacy that is appreciated and valued by all his colleagues, having written or co-authored several books and guidance notes on various aspects of water loss management.
The free software „WB-EasyCalc” developed by him and used internationally has been translated into multiple languages, including Romanian. In January 2023, he launched the free mobile application EasyCalc, which he developed together with his son. The app is available on both Android and iOS platforms. It was his parting gift to the water community, demonstrating his continued commitment to sharing knowledge and educating people about water loss management.
His presence in Romania was connected, among other things, to the Water Loss 2007 World Conference and the Water Loss 2015 and 2019 regional conferences, organized under the auspices of the IWA in Bucharest. Roland also participated in a series of seminars/workshops in Romania focused on reducing non-revenue water, and we are grateful for his presence in one of the webinars on the YouTube channel „Detectivii Apei Pierdute” (Water Loss Detectives).
Roland Liemberger is known for his direct and straightforward approach to the challenges faced by water companies in reducing non-revenue water, as well as for his availability and dedication to his profession and colleagues. In this regard, we suggest accessing some of the impressions and advice from this legend in the field of water loss (the links are available at the end of the article where applicable).
Back to Basics is the title that Roland Liemberger gave to a successful webinar held on the YouTube channel of the International Water Association’s Water Loss Specialist Group (IWA-WLSG). The posted recording has gathered over 1,350 views and contains a brief description of what Roland wanted to share with us:
It is already 20 years that the first edition of the IWA Manual of Best Practice, ‘Performance Indicators for Water Supply Systems’ had been published. It included the (then) new standardized water balance and water loss performance indicators. Since then Roland Liemberger has analyzed the NRW situation of water utilities around the world and has provided training to hundreds of engineers in many different countries. In this webinar Roland will explain the basics to those which are relatively new to the topic but also offer a few thoughts and tricks to the more advanced NRW engineer.
Water Loss Asia 2022 – Roland had a presentation titled „Digital Technology & Artificial Intelligence – New Excuses for not Getting Serious on Leakage Reduction?”. Regarding this topic, he posted the following remark at that time:
„Can you imagine? I was invited to speak at the Water Loss Asia 2022 conference with the theme ‘Controlling Non-Revenue Water through Digital Technology & Artificial Intelligence’! It seems like a joke to allow someone to speak there who always says, ‘With the most basic old technologies, we can solve 90% of the NRW problems in the world!’ But we managed, especially using the ideas presented by Bill Kingdom at the IWA Water Loss 2022 conference in Prague!”
Water Loss 2022 Prague – Roland prepared the Water Loss 2022 conference in Prague and declared before the event:
„I am thrilled! So far, more than 300 participants from 57 (!) different countries have registered for the conference! A big THANK YOU to the Czech organizers and the IWA Water Loss Specialist Group. See you all in Prague on Sunday evening!
Despite his fame, Roland Liemberger remained modest towards his colleagues in the industry, often offering technical advice and encouragement, especially to those who were just starting on this path. At the same time, he never compromised professionally, and through his direct and unambiguous style expressed in articles and presentations, he managed to identify the underlying causes of water loss issues.
This was the story, in short, of a legend in the field of water loss. Rest in peace, Roland!
Links:
Webinar Back To Basics – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1PLT93HDUNc
Presentation at WaterLoss Asia 2022 – https://youtu.be/e5yF2A_5QjA
Webinar Outsourcing of NRW reduction activities – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gLjW4Of_Z5A
Leave A Comment