The City of Johannesburg has saved R700 million thanks to the first phase of its Water Infrastructure Upgrade and Renewal Project. The project, which costs R1.7 billion, commenced in Soweto in 2004 with the objective to tackle massive physical losses from pipe leakages and pipe bursts and commercial losses from deemed consumption at a flat rate to prepaid metering through fixing and repairing internal plumbing and pipe replacement. Before the implementation of Phase 1 in Soweto, more than 40% of the water supplied to Soweto was lost through physical (i.e. pipe leakages) and commercial losses (i.e. cost recovery). As a result of the intervention, the average water consumption dropped from 66 kilolitres per household per month to 12, an improvement of more than 80%.