Smart Water Management

• Innotech
|
• June 30, 2021

Current Scenario/Problems

Despite being the only carbon-negative country in the world, Bhutan does not have sufficient safe drinking water. Thimphu, the capital city, which covers an approximate area of 26 square km with a population of about 114,551 (Population and Housing Census of Bhutan, 2017) is no exception. Therefore, the implementation of the Smart Water Management System will address the following issues and provide their solutions.

Some of the issues are as follows:

1. Water wastage caused by leakage, consumer carelessness, and overflow
2. Uneven and inefficient water distribution management
3. Water contamination
4. Inefficient water billing practices
5. Lengthy troubleshooting time
6. Frost formation in pipes
7. Water theft

While there are many reasons for the acute shortage of water in the city.  Some of the main reasons seem to be a result of the lack of a long-term drinking water supply master plan, population growth and unprecedented development, poor water supply infrastructure to meet growing demand, financial inadequacy, limited operations, and maintenance due to the absence of technology and technical capacity, as well as intermittent water supply with high systems loss.

Additionally, poor water management systems, limited infrastructures, and low maintenance have caused leakages that make up for about 30% of water being wasted. There is also no proper billing system in place for the water consumption of each end user.

Solutions

Smart Water Management System aims to solve the problems of the current water supply system through the exploitation of water on the basis of sufficiency, efficiency, and sustainability. However, this must be done using innovative data and communication including proper controlling and monitoring of technologies. As a result, the developed water system will be able to improve the current infrastructure, monitoring and maintenance period, irregular water supply, and the water billing system which currently has substantial deviation to the real consumption.

The smart water system will use an instrumented, interconnected, and intelligent system to improve the convention system.

• Instrumented: The ability to detect, sense, measure, and record data.
• Interconnected: The ability to communicate and interact with operators and managers.
• Intelligent: The ability to analyze the situation, enable responses, and optimize troubleshooting solutions.