ABSTRACT This article takes up the story of a numerical indicator of system water losses called Non-Revenue Water (NRW), which is becoming an important measure for benchmarking South African Water Service Authorities (WSAs). The aim of this paper is, in the first place, to document the adoption of NRW as a Performance Indicator (PI), showing how it reflects a shift in the domestic regulatory framework in South Africa and the assumed priorities of water managers in line with the dominant governmental rationality in the sector. However, in drawing this discussion towards the theme of commodification I also show that the NRW audit enables a new way of seeing and speaking about “public water,” while the story of its uptake tells us a something about the development of contemporary governmental norms, and the forms of the resistance that shape it. On the one hand then, the article links the enthusiasm for NRW auditing in South Africa to a wider movement in the development and usage of audits and indicators as technologies of government at a distance. On the other hand, and stepping to a higher level of abstraction, I argue that the uptake of NRW must be read in relation to a contested set of processes marked by struggles over the commodification of water, and which sometimes turns up in the numbers.

中文翻译：

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南非的商品化，水基础设施和计算水损失的方法

摘要本文讲述了一种称为非收入水（NRW）的系统水损失数字指标的故事，该指标正在成为衡量南非水务局（WSA）基准的重要措施。本文的目的首先是记录采用北威州水作为绩效指标（PI）的情况，以显示其如何反映南非国内监管框架的变化以及水资源管理者根据该部门政府主导的合理性。但是，在以商品化为主题进行讨论时，我还表明NRW审计为观察和谈论“公共水”提供了一种新的方式，而其采用的故事则告诉我们有关现代政府规范发展的一些信息，以及影响它的阻力形式。一方面，这篇文章将南非对北威州的审计热情与远程政府的审计技术和指标的发展和使用的广泛运动联系起来。另一方面，在迈向更高的抽象水平时，我认为必须将NRW的吸收与一系列有争议的，以水的商品化为奋斗特征的过程联系起来，有时数量会增加。