With an increased awareness in implementing IoT strategies in India, the government of India is furthering their measures to enable Smart City projects and leveraging IoT technology to create a sustainable environment in the country.
With water becoming a hot topic of discussion internationally, IoT strategies are now resolving problems of water scarcity, water quality and water consumption.
Smart Water broadly means management and distribution of water whilst maintaining its quality. When IoT technology is implemented, it requires the data of the water to be transmitted over a longer distance, wirelessly, and uninterrupted to a central dashboard to analyze and monitor the water system.
To address the problem of water quality, sensors are incorporated at various locations within the pipeline which can then gather data like seepage, runoff, pH levels, dissolved oxygen, pesticides, and foreign materials that may be in the water. This is then transmitted wirelessly by the communication protocol to the gateway and then to a central location where the data is stored.
To make sure the sensors transmit accurate data, we need a relevant communication protocol like LoRaWAN, ZigBee (News - Alert) or Wi-Fi, depending upon the cost and application. LoRaWAN is generally used due to its low cost, low power, and long range capabilities.
Several companies have extended their outlook in the field of Smart water meters. WaterOn, device made by a startup company called SmarterHomes, based in Bangalore, India is being used extensively. The device is capable of detecting leakages, and sends alerts and notifications regularly about hourly consumption on water so that residents can keep a tab on their water usage.
This meter data is powered by solar panels and can be monitored by mobile applications. Vivek Shukla, Co-Founder and CEO of SmarterHomes says, “We've found that our service plans do the best where residents pay a monthly sum depending on the nature of the product for the next 10 years for data billing services alone.”
SenRa, an IoT company and LoRa Alliance contributor who recently partnered with Skysens and Chariot, uses LPWAN protocol to monitor water cost-effectively and reliably.
SenRa’s ultrasonic water meter device is designed to monitor the quality of water and its distribution network. It has long term battery life which allows devices to minimize the water loss by detecting leakages. It assists in tracking water consumption and flow patterns.
Researchers found the best and efficient way of implementing smart water through Proof of Concept (POC) in India by deploying Advanced Meter Infrastructure (AMI), replacing the old Automated Meter Reading (AMR) system that was in place.
SenRa is giving the country its first efficient smart water meter with many advanced features like automatic billing, leak detections, monitoring the quality of water, real-time reading and analytics, and tampering detection.
Under the Smart Cities project launched by Narendra Modi, Prime Minister of India, valued at over half a billion dollars, is bringing solutions to top cities like Pune, Ahmedabad and Chennai.
In the future, the dilemma of providing clean water to the cities of India will be a thing of the past, and that will change millions - even billions - of lives.