Freshwater is far from evenly distributed throughout the world. About 1,1 billion people worldwide lack access to clean water and 2,7 billion people find water scarce for at least one month of the year. Without water services, factories shut down, hospitals close, communities are disrupted and most hotels, restaurants and businesses cease operations.
In The Global Risks Report, which is released annually by the World Economic Forum, the category, ‘water crises’, has consistently placed in the top five global risks by impact since 2012.
On the other hand, according to World Vision, amazing progress has been made in making clean drinking water accessible to 2,6 billion people in developing countries from 1990 to 2015. That’s an increase from 76% of the global population to 91% during that time. The following case studies illustrate how effective resource management contributes to water supply sustainability and environmental stewardship.
Water conservation through leakage management
In recent years, Metropolitan Cebu, the second-largest urban area in the Philippines, has experienced significant economic and population growth. The Metropolitan Cebu Water District (MCWD), a government-owned and controlled corporation covering a very large portion of Cebu, needed to improve its water supply system to keep up with the growing demand.
Driven by the increasing number of customers, MCWD decided to construct a water supply monitoring system as part of a water supply improvement project. The project involved the installation of a scada system that enabled MCWD operators in its main office to remotely monitor and control the water supply within its service area.
Yokogawa was responsible for engineering the scada system, setting up a water leakage management system and installing flowmeters and other types of field instruments at a total of 143 locations such as dams, reservoirs, pressure points, water pump stations and district metered areas (DMA), throughout the MCWD service area.
All monitoring points such as DMAs and pumping stations, as well as pressure points installed with remote terminal units (RTUs) for collection of data on flow, pressure and pump status, are equipped to transfer the data to the MCWD main office.
Water leakage management
An effective way to increase the water supply in the area is to reduce the ‘non-revenue water’ (NRW). The combination of Yokogawa’s scada system and water leakage management software enabled significant improvements to the MCWD water supply.
While minimising water losses improves the district’s financial performance, management further realised that the losses were unsustainable. Leaking water essentially runs off without serving a useful purpose. The losses equate to wasted treatment chemicals, running times on equipment such as pumps, and energy.
The scada system gathers all DMA flow and pressure data together once a day. MCWD operators monitor and analyse minimum flows with pressure data and long-term trends, according to International Water Association (IWA) standards. The water leakage management software can detect small changes in flow and pressure, which allows the MCWD to investigate more precisely using special tools to find the actual leakage points and repair them.
In addition, the water leakage management software can simulate the operating pressures in the water network. Awareness of the optimum pressure helps avoid excessive pressure in the water network. Thus, MCWD has successfully reduced the NRW.
Yokogawa’s scada system and water leakage management software have made it possible to stabilise the MCWD water supply and have contributed to its financial health, sustainability and the environment through visualisation of the entire water network.
Stabilising the water supply and sewage management benefits resource conservation and the environment
Bengaluru, the capital city of Karnataka, is the third-largest city and the fifth-largest metropolitan area in India. With a population of over 12 million people, it is also one of the country’s fastest-growing metropolitan areas. Bengaluru is a centre for education, information technology, biotechnology, sophisticated high-tech healthcare and many other industries.
The Bangalore Water Supply and Sewerage Board (BWSSB) was set up in 1964 to meet the water supply and sewage disposal needs of the city, which covers an area of about 800 square kilometres.
Due to rapid industrial development and population growth, the city suffered from frequent water outages. The construction of modern infrastructure for water and sewage facilities to supply safe and clean water and to treat sewage water appropriately for sanitation has been a key issue. Accordingly, BWSSB has been developing facilities such as water treatment plants, pumping stations, reservoirs, water networks, sewage networks and sewage treatment plants under long-term phased plans. Building a new centralised scada monitoring centre (CSMC) in Bengaluru is a key component in these plans.
Yokogawa India received a turn-key contract for a scada system and was responsible for the design, supply, installation, testing and commissioning, including a seven-year operation and maintenance contract.
The CSMC monitors most of the BWSSB water-related facilities, which are located across a wide area of Bengaluru. The main facilities currently monitored are:
• Water treatment plant/intermediate water pumping stations.
• Ground-level reservoirs.
• Sewage treatment plants.
• Intermediate sewage pumping stations.
The system uses industry standards such as OPC, ODBC and FTP to connect with products and systems from other suppliers. The total number of configured tags exceeds half a million, allowing the scada system to gather all the water-related data so that BWSSB can grasp the current status of the water supply and sewage treatment in real-time.
Stable, 24/7 operation
As a key infrastructure for both water and sewage-related facilities, the CSMC is required to run 24/7 without failure. To ensure stable monitoring, scada servers and communication lines such as Ethernet, cellular and radio are all of redundant design. Firewalls provide cybersecurity, an access control system is deployed for enhanced security and CSMC is monitored by live video. Multiple backup systems are on standby in case of a power outage.
Managers can monitor the current water distribution status for the entirety of Bengaluru in real-time, which is invaluable for deciding where they should direct their limited water resources. The CSMC has, thus, become the heart of Bengaluru’s water infrastructure. The system efficiently and effectively manages water resources for energy conservation, emissions reductions, environmental stewardship and sustainability.
Conclusion
It is our responsibility to pass on a healthy planet to future generations. Recently, the world has experienced unforeseeable social and environmental changes such as the increase in extreme weather events and the Covid-19 pandemic. To adapt to such changes and realise a sustainable future, it is necessary to exceed past initiatives.
Yokogawa will work to achieve net-zero emissions, ensure the well-being of all and make a transition to a circular economy by 2050, thus making the world a better place for future generations.
As a company, its goal is to contribute to society through broad-ranging activities in the areas of measurement, control and information technologies. Individually, it aims to combine good citizenship with the courage to innovate.
One way the company has successfully pursued its sustainability goals is through its service to the global water industry. Yokogawa will continue to co-innovate with key stakeholders to develop technologies that can best manage resources to maintain sustainability, preserve the environment, optimise energy use and minimise emissions of greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide.
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