Optimizing Crucial Water Supply Networks With Mobile Technology
President and CEO of Vodafone US Inc., leading Vodafone Business commercial operations throughout North America.
Let’s explore how the right mobile tech can improve water supply networks, why this is crucial and how to incorporate the tech from the ground up
Over a billion people worldwide lack access to water, and 2.7 billion suffer water shortages for up to one month of the year. As the climate crisis deepens, rainfall becomes less predictable and droughts increase, stymying freshwater access. A population growing at a rate of 83 million people annually compounds the issue. To maintain adequate and equitable access to water, authorities must address drought, pollution, growing demand and poor water management. Leaders must also create a more intelligent and secure infrastructure backed by data and technologies to save water, improve water quality and use water more effectively.
Desalination is one such solution, but the technology remains expensive compared to other water recycling technologies, mainly when energy costs are high. Wastewater treatment plants require, on average, 0.13–0.79 kWh per cubic meter of treated water. This is in comparison to Saudi Arabia’s Saline Water Conversion Corporation, which in 2021 set a record as the lowest energy desalination plant in the world, using 2.27 kWh per cubic meter of treated water.
This is not a small difference when every drop counts for critical goods, services and utilities. Key to this network are energy and utility enterprises and the critical interplay between energy and water. The International Energy Agency notes that “each resource faces rising demands and constraints in many regions because of economic and population growth and climate change.” The IEA also notes that technologies used to achieve the clean-energy transition could increase water stress if not managed properly. While traditional fossil fuel industries are water intensive, so are biofuels and nuclear power.
The Case For Data-Powered Water Networks
The energy challenge underscores the need for utilities and infrastructures to be more productive, predictable and responsive. Data is needed to understand and respond to dynamic actors in the water supply chain, ranging from leaky infrastructure to inefficient networks and trial technologies. This data must be communicable and combined with mobile technology like sensors and readers—technology that can be added to infrastructure and is inherently mobile—to help meet the water supply demands.
The Internet of Things (IoT) collects data that supports decision-making and underpins predictive technologies, such as edge computing. IoT smart sensors or devices are placed in the water infrastructure and are connected to the internet via IoT connectivity. The sensors share information about their performance, conditions and usage, and the data collected helps predict their future functionality and maintenance needs.
This is critical data for optimizing the performance of a hydro dam, for example. The IoT can also create a digital twin of a physical asset, proposed infrastructure or process to monitor and test it more affordably and effectively.
Edge computing requires high data processing speeds and low latency; high bandwidth connectivity is needed to manage the performance of a smart grid and minimize the downtime of a business function or industrial asset. Meanwhile, connecting devices, sensors and equipment—from turbines to virtual reality headsets—helps link on-site engineers with remote and dispersed planning teams.
Diving Into The Tech
Mobile technology can help implement renewable energy and support less water-intensive processes. Mobile Private Networks (MPNs) can deliver secure connectivity and powerful computing in real time, even in places that previously couldn’t be connected. When combined with edge computing, waste areas in a water plant or network can be identified immediately, enabling greater sustainability.
Distributed Multi-access Edge Computing (MEC) offers cloud computing capabilities and IT services at the network’s edge. This is used especially when connecting moving assets, such as turbines. Applications run locally, enabling real-time responses and near-instantaneous decision-making. This avoids latency and helps companies unlock data across their ecosystem.
Low Power Wide Area (LPWA) network technologies are also crucial. LPWA is designed to connect devices with low bandwidth requirements without requiring much power, all while providing wider and deeper network coverage. In this case, LPWA technology is beneficial for collecting and gathering water stats and distributing these over long distances. With MPN and MEC technology, mobile solutions can power smarter water networks.
Mobile and remote technology solutions also offer a helping hand against the impending challenge of water shortages. Accurate and quick monitoring and reporting on reservoir levels or water consumption can enable quick adjustments, ensuring that water shortages don’t lead to a reduced quality of life.
Securing The Infrastructure Of Our Water Networks
Energy and infrastructure assets need protection from cyber-attacks like in the recent cyberattack on a water treatment plant in Florida. Mobile technology can help protect site operations and customer data against cyber threats with built-in security. Meanwhile, Secure Access Service Edge (SASE) is a cloud architecture that combines network and security-as-a-service functions, delivering a single cloud service to protect any entry point.
Protecting and monitoring the performance of assets is more critical than ever. As the energy generation market adjusts to incorporate more renewables onto the grid, virtual power plants will be needed to monitor, forecast and optimize water usage. These plants need mobile-ready data, which must be understood, implemented and communicated from the ground up.
How We Can Fix Water Supply Networks
Like desalination, mobile connectivity isn’t a quick fix for the gargantuan challenge of supplying water to growing populations. Yet it improves infrastructure, supports business resilience and reduces waste. According to the European Environment Agency, 40% of the water supply in Croatia is lost in its water transportation network. Technology like sensors that recognize and locate a leak could be used to help remedy this loss.
Only 3% of the planet consists of available fresh water. Private and public-sector organizations must use water more efficiently and harness the fourth industrial revolution to monitor and maximize it. In 2018, Cape Town became the first modern city to run out of water due in part to poor water management. This must never happen again.
Forbes Technology Council is an invitation-only community for world-class CIOs, CTOs and technology executives. Do I qualify?
link