Sensing and stopping water wastage

India’s water crisis is as much about supply as management. While the awareness of water wastage is rising, there isn’t enough action to reduce it. 

Part of the reason is fiscal. Water for most users is relatively inexpensive. For domestic users as well as for agricultural usage. In the case of agriculture, free power allows users to pump unlimited water from the ground since it does not cost them anything. 

For industrial usage though, water is an expensive proposition. The cost of water for industrial usage is about ten times more than that for domestic users. 

Technology is now being deployed to measure, monitor and mitigate wastage of water. While it has begun for industry, there are good reasons for the solutions to flow into domestic and agriculture users too. 

While there are differing estimates, agriculture consumes about 80 per cent, industry accounts for 10 per cent of freshwater while the rest is domestic and other types of usage. Within the industry, the big users are power generating companies, chemical, construction and food products. 

Early use of sensors in water usage in various industry segments have indicated successful results. Bengaluru based young engineering company Fluxgen Technologies has been creating cloud-based solutions for water management and waste reduction. Using smart sensors, Fluxgen is among the many start-ups that are driving the usage of connected and automated systems for minimising water wastage. Founder and CEO Ganesh Shankar has focused on the dairy sector where there is growing realisation of reducing waste. Here is how it works. Sensors are placed along water pipes at various points of usage and drainage. Though a normal water meter would capture the total amount of water used and bill the user accordingly, it is unable to capture the variation in demand during a production cycle. The sensor device however measures the flow of the water, takes a reading every few minutes and uploads to a software that captures all the information. This programme then analyses the information and matches it with the production cycle. The industrial user is able to then assess the points and times when water was consumed in excess of requirement and actual activity in the facility. 

Dairies are allowed to use up to 1.5 litres of water for every liter of milk produced. “Many dairies are using up to 3 liters of water without even realising it,” says Shankar. “The sensors and the data science applied on it helps us to reduce water wastage by 15 per cent.” Lower water usage also implies lower use of electricity to pipe the water. 

Such cloud-based connected solutions are slowly spreading to other sector where water is used. A combination of strict enforcement and improved use of technology could boost India’s water wastage problem. 

The cost of installing such systems varies and depends on the number of sensor systems installed. For a facility with 25 such systems, the cost can be Rs 1.5 million. Experts estimate that a saving of 15 per cent water could pay back the cost of installation and maintenance in about 10 months. 

There is a clear business case for it. Industry now has to invest itself in managing a scarce resource of India. Not just the industry, water sensors have a critical role to play in public water management too. Some cities are experimenting with it. Ideally, in the next few years, retail consumers, city water boards, effluent treatment plants should start deploying sensors to water management. The wealth of data that it generates can be pooled by asking all relevant bodies to share information on a common platform. This will  hopefully contribute to a national plan for saving the scarce resource.