{"id":30831,"date":"2024-04-16T09:30:00","date_gmt":"2024-04-16T07:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.fundacionbankinter.org\/noticias\/om_iot-in-action-to-monitor-water-management\/"},"modified":"2025-12-19T08:41:44","modified_gmt":"2025-12-19T07:41:44","slug":"om_iot-in-action-to-monitor-water-management","status":"publish","type":"noticias","link":"https:\/\/www.fundacionbankinter.org\/en\/news\/om_iot-in-action-to-monitor-water-management\/","title":{"rendered":"OM_IoT in action to monitor water management"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Water, a finite and increasingly scarce resource <\/h2>\n\n

Just before adopting the Sustainable Development Goals, the UN argued that <\/a>1.8 billion people<\/a> lived in countries that would face water scarcity by 2025, the same number of people who gained access to water <\/a>thanks to the MDGs<\/a>. The <\/a>Latest reports<\/a> show that the global urban population subject to water scarcity could double<\/strong> from 2016 to 2050, reaching 1.7 to 2.4 billion people. <\/p>\n\n

Why is it necessary to monitor water pipes? What is not measured, does not exist <\/h2>\n\n

The pipes, especially those made of iron, have water leaks<\/strong> for reasons as diverse as breaks due to increases in pressure, small earthquakes and landslides, drilling by roots, frost, accidents of nearby works, and a long etcetera of circumstances. <\/p>\n\n

As they are buried and not visible, and taking into account that many water leaks do not surface but penetrate the earth, it is possible for a municipality to have millions of dollars in water leaks for decades without anyone seeing anything. That is why we have to measure. <\/p>\n\n

In addition, this technology can be used not only as a technology that avoids losses due to accidental events, but also the waste associated with unsustainable human activities<\/strong> such as lawn irrigation in dry or arid climates. <\/p>\n\n

IoT for water management: looking for pressure drops <\/h2>\n\n

Over the last few decades, water leak detection technology<\/strong> has been made available to the management systems of municipalities and regions with the aim of acting quickly in the event of a leak. And they are being <\/a>a success<\/a> in protecting this valuable resource. <\/p>\n\n

The monitoring of the water network<\/strong> is based on sensorisation to detect pressure drops<\/strong>, inappropriate speeds inside pipes or sudden increases in humidity outside them. Being networked, they are examples of IoT. <\/p>\n\n

Monitor water using mobile phone lines <\/h2>\n\n

Giants in the water protection sector, such as Aqualia (45.2 million users in 18 countries) are making use of mobile telecommunications technology<\/strong> to monitor hotspots, and at the beginning of 2024 <\/a>signed a contract with Vodafone with 6.5 million active lines<\/a>, that is, connection sending points. However, these points can serve dozens of read points in the same way that a modem can communicate all the devices in the same household to the Internet. <\/p>\n\n

This ‘internetisation of water’ \u2013 which Klaus Schwab, creator of the World Economic Forum, called waternet<\/em> in his book The Fourth Industrial Revolution (2016)<\/em> \u2013 is also important for citizens to be aware of their consumption<\/strong> and to be able to take action to make better use of this resource. Although the individual perspective is much less efficient than a regional policy, it is a way of adding up. <\/p>\n\n

Planting stones to create streams, floating photovoltaics to prevent evaporative losses, digging rainwater catchers <\/p>\n\n

To fight against drought and water shortages<\/strong>, especially in dry countries, the monitoring of water management is complemented by actions as varied as those given as examples: <\/p>\n\n