Water shortages have become a constant challenge in several regions of India. Many states are confronted with problems associated with an inadequate supply of drinking water and wastewater management. More than half of the world’s population will suffer from water shortages if this problem is not dealt with.
Each year, more than 35–40% of treated water is wasted before it arrives at homes and facilities. This loss happens when the cracks appear in the pipeline network because of weather changes, ageing infrastructure, and construction mistakes. These leaks are easy to spot because water bubbles out to the surface of the street. But it can be harder to detect small leaks in underground water lines beneath the roadways and concrete structures. Small leaks have the potential to turn into expensive and dangerous outcomes if not detected and stopped in time.
Over the last few decades, water stress has been increasing both due to an increase in water demand and reduced water supply, which makes leakage reduction in water systems a crucial part of water demand management. An analytical study conducted by the Delhi Committee of the Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India revealed that “distribution losses are primarily due to leakages in a network of nearly 9,000-km-long water supply lines and because of theft committed in unauthorized connections with results in a supply-demand gap of around 1300 million litre plugging of water in Delhi. And this added the woe in summer when the demand rises in several regions. The mismanagement and poor maintenance of the network made the situation more critical.”
Leakage is usually the largest component of distribution loss, but it remains unregulated. In public water supply systems, it results in not only the loss of purified drinking water but also wastage of energy and material resources used in planning, distribution, and treatment. Subsequently, it leads to secondary economic losses as well as damage to the pipe network and public health as it increases the risk of bacterial contamination of water delivered in cities for human consumption and can increase pollution loads into the environment. With the growing population demand, it makes the situation worse for the current aging infrastructure as it will put undue pressure on the network.
The pipeline network beneath our streets needs to be replaced because, with the aging of the pipes, the problems of infiltration and exfiltration due to leaks can lead to potential problems such as the collapse of a pipeline network or damage to the nearby assets. With extensive improvements in the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) sector, there exists potential to make a fundamental difference in the monitoring of water losses through leaks and unauthorized tapping from the network. ICT is recognized as a strategic ally in the process of developing innovative solutions to address the problems of water scarcity as well as providing real-time information to the authorities, which facilitates them with inputs for better action.
Earlier, the water sector was confined to traditional solutions that make detection of leaks and thefts from the deep pipeline under the ground a difficult process. The operator used microphones to listen for the water-escaping sound from the pipe, which was an imprecise and time-consuming process. The short-term and long-term sustainable management of water resources requires new and innovative thinking. Technological innovation in the water sector could bring a series of benefits, ranging from conservation to recycling or reusing the water resource.
Developments in the area of sensors and nanotechnology could lead to the incorporation of these technologies in the water pipes network. These sensors could be remotely monitored to provide information about the state of the pipe and allow water management authorities to take proactive action on problems detected on the distribution network and have better control over assets. The outcome of this ICT tool will be a system that helps to manage end-to-end distribution in the water supply network. For water authorities, the capability to be able to identify leaks or carry out repairs on the water distribution network on a near real-time basis will be crucial.
The availability of accessible water supplies in India is likely to come under intense pressure over the next couple of decades as its anticipated demographic transition and industrialization place stress on current sources of water supply. So, a well-designed ICT system not only allows the best use and deployment of water management systems but also draws millions of individual stakeholders around the country, thereby maximizing water-use efficiencies nationally.
This will lead to a better understanding of the water sector, which will eventually influence society and provide accessible data for rational decision making to the policymakers. The use of ICT in the water sector will increase water-use efficiency with significant savings in energy, finance, and chemical and maintenance costs for the water network. Therefore, a combination of digital and field measures to effectively increase water-use efficiency across the country could be used, which would at the same time help in capacity development to encourage responsible usage of available water resources.
In public water supply systems, it results in not only the loss of purified drinking water but also wastage of energy and material resources used in planning, distribution, and treatment. Subsequently, it leads to secondary economic loss as well as damage to the pipe network, public health as it increases the risk of bacterial contamination of water delivered in cities for human consumption, and can increase pollution loads into the environment.
With the growing population demand, it makes the situation worse for the current aging infrastructure as it will put undue pressure on the network. The pipeline network beneath our streets needs to be replaced because, with the aging of the pipes, the problems of infiltration and exfiltration due to leaks can lead to potential problems such as the collapse of a pipeline network or damage the nearby assets.
With extensive improvements in Information and Communication Technology (ICT) sector, the potential exists to make a fundamental difference in the monitoring of water losses through leaks and unauthorized tapping from the network. ICT is recognized as a strategic ally in the process of developing innovative solutions to address the problems of water scarcities as well as providing real-time information to the authorities, which facilitates them with inputs for better action.
Earlier, the water sector was confined in traditional solutions that make detection of leaks and thefts from the deep pipeline under the ground a difficult process. The operator uses microphones to listen for the water escaping sound from the pipe which anyway is an imprecise and time-consuming process. The short-term and long-term sustainable management of water resources requires new and innovative thinking.
Technological innovation in the water sector could bring a series of benefits, ranging from conservation to recycling or reusing the water resource. Developments in the area of sensors and nanotechnologies could lead to the incorporation of these technologies in the water pipes network. These sensors could be remotely monitored to provide information about the state of the pipe and allow water management authorities to take proactive action on problems detected on the distribution network and better control over assets.
The outcome of this ICT tool will be a system that helps to manage end-to-end distribution in the water supply network. For water authorities, the capability to be able to identify leaks or carry out repairs on the water distribution network on a near real-time basis will be crucial. It is clear that the availability of accessible water supplies in India is likely to come under intense pressure over the next couple of decades as its anticipated demographic transition and industrialization places stress on current sources of water supply.
So, a well-designed ICT system not only allows best use and deployment of water management systems but also draws millions of individual stakeholders around the country, thereby maximizing water-use efficiencies nationally that leads to a better understanding of water sector, which will eventually influence the society and provide accessible data for rational decision making to the policymakers.
The use of ICT in the water sector will increase the water efficiency with significant savings in energy, finance, and chemical and maintenance costs for the water network. Therefore, a combination of digital and field measures to effectively increase water-use efficiency across the country could be used, which would at the same time help in capacity development to encourage responsible usage of available water resources.