reducing system loss by two percent per year. The average level of NRW in 17 other major Asian cities, as estimated by the ADB in 2004, was 34%. Improved billing and customer service DWASA introduced a computerised billing system including the ability of customers to pay bills via SMS. Through this system and other measures revenues increased by 20% in a year and a half from 2009 on, while tariffs went up by only about 5% in July 2010. DWASA has eleven revenue zones. It sets a zone-wide annual target for billing, collection and reduction of non-revenue water. In at least three revenue zones utility staff are in charge of billing and collection directly, while in the other revenue zones this is done by an employees' cooperative, the Employees' Consumers Supplies Cooperative Society Ltd. (ECSCSL), under contract with the utility. Most of the workers at ECSCSL are seconded from Dhaka WASA. They receive salaries that are up to three times higher than at Dhaka WASA. Non-performing employees can be sent back to Dhaka WASA and ECSCSL can recruit new employees on its own. Workers also undertake water connections in informal houses, which Dhaka WASA rules do not normally permit. The system was introduced in 1997 in the context of privatisation efforts (see history section) which were opposed by employees. It was thus decided that one zone would be privatised and another one would be given to the employees' cooperative, experimentally, for one year. The private company and ECSCSL started in September 1997. In 1998 a monitoring committee found that ECSCSL had out-performed the private company in revenue collection increases and non-revenue water reductions. Subsequently, Dhaka WASA asked ECSCSL to take over two more of its revenue zones. The cooperative made sure that consumers receive bills monthly rather than bimonthly. The Cooperative has met its contractual targets every year. However, an independent study conducted in 2004 found that Dhaka WASA tends to choose deliberately low financial targets in the Cooperative zones. Moreover, the cost of revenue collection in the cooperative zones has almost doubled. Reaching the poor A project provided water to hitherto unserved slum areas through community-based organisations with the assistance of the NGO Dushtha Shasthya Kendra (DSK) and WaterAid from the UK. Initially the utility refused to provide water connections, saying that slum dwellers would not be able or not be willing to pay water bills. DSK, which knew