(GIST OF KURUKSHETRA) Smart Water Future

[November-2022]

Smart Water Future

Context: Water Scarcity at a Global Scale

About 1.1 billion people worldwide lack access to water
Around 2.7 billion find water scarce for at least one month of the year
Close to two million people, mostly children, die each year from diarrheal diseases alone
It is estimated that by 2025, two-thirds of the world’s population may face water shortages.

Water Scarcity in India

On account of the increasing population, the per capita annual availability of water in India, which was 1816 cubic meters in 2001 has reduced to 1544 cubic meters in 2011 and is expected to reduce to 1140 cubic meters by the year 2050.
According to international agencies, any situation of availability of less than 1000 cubic meters per capita is considered scarcity.
By 2030, India’s water demand is expected to be twice the available supply and if the trend continues, it may imply severe water scarcity for hundreds of millions of people.
Another key aspect of water that requires immediate attention is the management of wastewater.
The country generates 140 Billion Cubic Metre of wastewater annually.
The per-person disease burden due to unsafe water and sanitation was found to be 40 times higher in India than in China and 12 times higher than in Sri Lanka in 2016.

Smart Water Future

Smart Water broadly means the management and distribution of water while maintaining its quality.
To ensure the sustainable supply of water in a smart format, the focus must be on the reduction of non-revenue water and encouraging wastewater recycling and reuse.
Under the water supply management, loss due to non-revenue water can be considered a threat to water-scarce economies of the world.
The International Water Association (IWA) has defined “Non-revenue water” as all physical and commercial losses due to theft, pipe burst, overflow of reservoirs, unmetered and ill-metered water bill along with unbilled authorised consumption.
According to the World Bank, Indian utilities in 2012 face huge distribution losses due to non-revenue water, it has been estimated that about 40-70% of water distributed, is lost on account of leakages, unauthorised connections, billing and collection inefficiencies. Therefore, reducing non-revenue water losses has become important.
There are four basic leakage management activities that can be undertaken by water utilities to reduce distribution losses, namely:

Pressure management
Active leakage control
Speed and quality of repairs and pipe asset management
Maintenance and renewal

Use of Technologies to Facilitate Smart Water Management

Active leakage control can be achieved by technological interventions such as real-time monitoring of water supply infrastructure, use of geographic information systems (GIS) tools, installing smart devices, and telemetry.
Implementation of Internet of Things (loT) technology helps transmit data or information about water usage to longer distances through wireless, and uninterrupted means.
The use of Sensors, remote sensing technologies, and visualisation tools help manage water resources at the service area, watershed, and regional scales.
Satellites and drones can be used to provide data for mapping water resources, measuring water fluxes, and utility asset management. Data from such technologies can better prepare water resource management policies.
Mobile phones can be utilised to provide near real-time data on water quality, flows, pressures and water levels, among other parameters. It can also help in spreading useful information on water resources to all the stakeholders.
Smart meters can be used to record customer water usage that will provide a clear picture of water consumption and convey data to both consumer and utility.
Artificial Intelligence in water can allow for the strategic and cost-effective operation of utilities, including better planning and execution of projects, better tracking and understanding of resource loss and more efficient collection and distribution networks. Further, the use of AI in reservoir operation, flood forecasting, and inundation mapping can help to mitigate floods and save thousands of lives.
Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality technologies have the potential to support decision-making in the field by providing holographic representation of pipes, cables and other assets and facilitate immersive scenario-based training.
Blockchain applications have the potential for direct, secure transactions between resource providers and consumers and other players.

Case studies for the adoption of technologies

The World Bank-funded Karnataka Urban Water Sector Improvement Project (KUWASIP) has reduced NRW from 50% to 7 % and increased the hours of supply from 2 hours every few days to 24-hour water supply.
The Central Water Commission is collaborating with Google to provide inundation alerts based on the Flood Forecast available in Common Alerting Protocol (CAP) platform using high-quality digital Terrain Models available with Google using AI and ML.
The Government of Kerala has also entrusted the Kerala State IT Mission (KSITM) to set up an ICT Platform consisting of Web based backend and a mobile app-based field survey application to document flood related damages.
Further, students from IIT Madras have developed an AI-enabled drone that can help authorities provide vital information about people trapped in disaster-hit areas.