Smart metering a panacea to South Africa’s water woes
from DION HENRICK in Cape Town
CAPE TOWN – SMART metering has been hailed as a solution to drought-stricken South Africa’s water woes.
Huawei, the global information and communications technology (ICT) solutions provider, said in the plight of the drought, it was ready to work closely with local partners and customers to roll out a water management system to help manage consumption more efficiently using the company’s Narrow Band Internet of Things (NB-IoT) technology.
According to experts, smart metering offers an opportunity to better manage and measure consumption as well as identify problem areas, potential issues leading to wastage, leaks and infrastructure damage.
Zhu Ming, Huawei’s IoT Regional Director, said the innovation had proven to be a highly effective solution for managing precious water resources by reducing wastage and costs, both through leak detection, timely water consumption feedback and changing consumer behavior.
“South Africa is facing its worst drought in 100 years. We believe that smart metering solutions hold the answers to many challenges in the water management ecosystem,” Ming said.
His sentiments coincided with the just-held World Water Day.
Last week’s commemoration was of more significance to South Africans than ever before with the drought in the Eastern, Northern and Western Cape Provinces being elevated to Natural Disaster status.
The Huawei smart water meter solution uses the company’s NB-IoT technology, said to be ideal for deployment in Africa.
This solution is already being implemented in Shenzhen, China where it was launched in March 2017.
Huawei jointly released the world’s first commercial NB-IoT-based Smart Water project in cooperation with Shenzhen Water and China Telecom.
This project, involving 800 MHz NB-IoT base stations managed by OceanConnect, established an industry benchmark for NB-IoT-based applications.
With China Telecom’s network and its “eCloud 3.0” platform, the project helped Shenzhen Water avoid losses from missing readings and water leakages from pipelines.
The outcome was significantly lower costs compared to those of traditional manual meter readings. By analysing the water usage patterns of different consumer groups, the system also provides clear guidance for the construction and maintenance of pipelines.
Huawei’s NB-IoT solution was recently cited for its outstanding achievements and contributions in technological innovation, industry research, and applied practice at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain.
“Huawei is ready to work closely with our local partners and customers to roll out what we believe should be an essential water management system to help end-customers/users and water utilities more efficiently manage consumption of this precious natural resource, Ming said.
– CAJ News
