Technology on Tap: Do we need to keep fighting over water!!!

By IBM
Updated: Jan 12, 2015 11:23:18 AM UTC

http://www.flickr.com/photos/mckaysavage/1396028598/ Water jugs waiting to be filled, photo by: McKay Savage

A lot has changed in Bollywood, but some scenes continue to be repeated and are still relevant. One of these evergreen scenes is long queues of people holding all kinds of plastic/ metal containers waiting to fill water to carry home. We saw these in black and white films and in some of the current ones as well. Often arguments over water ensued and along with that a complete free for all till the hero arrived and calmed everyone down usually by quoting some Gandhian philosophy…. but will philosophy suffice as we face yet another blazing summer?

Experts believe that by the year 2050, India’s per capita water availability will have dropped by 50 per cent. We all know how precarious our current water availability is – can you imagine making do with just half of what currently have? From neighborhood skirmishes to legal battles at the State level, water issues are going to become even more prominent. This is not even taking into consideration the quality of water currently available, and deteriorating quality in a few years’ time.

Our “entitled” approach to the consumption of resources around us is a huge factor for the mess we are in. And while there is increased consciousness of the need for water conservation, rain water harvesting and other similar methods, it is nowhere near enough.

A simple way to illustrate this is the depth that one now has to dig to find groundwater pools. Available at 30-40 feet earlier, today many regions in India may hit a water body only at 1300 feet! Of the traditional communal water source – the village well – that was such an intrinsic part of life in the Indian hinterland a few years ago, Tamil Nadu alone has reported 63 per cent running dry.

Population explosion, the industrial revolution, and conversion of forests and green cover to built-up spaces are most often touted as the reason for the widespread water pollution in many parts of the world – and India is no stranger to any of these. It is estimated that as much as 70 per cent of India’s water is polluted.

In New Delhi alone, chemical analysis of the groundwater in various areas has shown high pollution, as well as the presence of extremely dangerous substances at higher-than-acceptable levels, including arsenic, industrial contamination, and sewage sludge.

What emerges when you consider this situation is that it is largely an infrastructure issue, backed by sociological apathy. It is a an ongoing task – and something that we are all responsible for – to change mindsets about how effectively our water consumption needs to be managed at the individual and home levels. The good news is that with the advances in technology, water resource planning and management, especially at the infrastructure level, is now probably easier than ever before.

Through the scenario below, one can see the very real role that technology – and its various applications – can play in something that we consider as basic as getting water in a tap. This means knowing the demand, evaluating the supply, understanding the distribution, and preventing leakages. It takes all these basic steps to get water for our consumption.

The water authorities have various ways of collecting the water that they need to supply to the residents of a city. This could be through natural sources like rivers, lakes, or through interventions like deep drilling for groundwater, rainwater harvesting, treatment of seawater or grey water, or other modes as well. Analysis of climate and tide patterns – already being tracked by meteorologists, marine departments and many others – would enable the water authority to estimate the natural water that they would be able to access, and how much they need to chemically treat.

Apart from the physical and logistical aspect of actually making this water available through the main pipelines across the city, the authority would also be greatly empowered if they were aware of the time of day that the most water was required, and the regions of the city that used the most or least. Simple analytics run on the data generated during the monthly billing for users would reveal a whole lot of data that would help plan for the amount of water to be made available by time and geography.

At the home or building level, small sensors connected to the water supply could feed the supplier with a wealth of real-time data on usage patterns, and even help flag unusual consumption and identify possible leakage, theft or wastage.

Now imagine the entire water supply network across a city on a fully-networked grid – with people at a console watching out for alerts from around the city on a large screen. One red dot and a quick-response team is dispatched to the spot to check on it, and one customer call and the agent is able to pinpoint their location and tell them exactly what the water situation in that area is. Such sensor- or RFID-based tracking is used by scores of operators – electricity, telecommunications, even logistics and couriers companies – so why not explore this route for something as essential as water supply?

When considering how technology can effectively play a role in water management today, it should also be something that people can utilize to manage their own water consumption. Enabling people to keep track of the water that they consume on an ongoing basis, comparing their usage against a city-wide or a socio-economic average, or simply offering rebates to those who successfully reduce their consumption of supplied water by a predefined percentage – the technology exists for all this data to be instantaneously customised and displayed to all customers.

Technology applied in the right way can create a more effective and longer-term solution, and this is exactly the approach that water management needs today. Together, we have to move the conversation from how we are facing impending thirst to how water is a primary resource that is treated with the care and professionalism it deserves.

Vish Narayan is a Distinguished Engineer at IBM’s India Software Lab. Vish has been involved in significant IBM projects related to natural resources, smarter cities, telecommunications and healthcare

The thoughts and opinions shared here are of the author.

Check out our end of season subscription discounts with a Moneycontrol pro subscription absolutely free. Use code EOSO2021. Click here for details.

Post Your Comment
Required
Required, will not be published
All comments are moderated