Smart technology to detect water theft in Kochi

Senior KWA officials said that the smart ball would travel with the water flow for up to 12 hours, collecting information about leaks over many miles of the pipeline.

A smart ball will start rolling from Monday to detect leakage points and water theft along the Kerala Water Authority’s (KWA) 8-km stretch of the 42-inch main pipeline between Toshiba junction near Kalamassery and Padivattom.

Officials of the authority’s Non-Revenue Water Management Unit (NRWM) in Ernakulam, along with the representatives of the company providing the technology to KWA, held field surveys along the main pipeline on Thursday. It will continue for the next two days before the smart ball starts locating small leaks and air pockets in the pipeline from September 22.

Senior KWA officials said that the smart ball would travel with the water flow for up to 12 hours, collecting information about leaks over many miles of the pipeline. Its acoustic sensor passes through the entire length of the pipe being surveyed. The sensor can clearly discern the acoustic activity associated with leaks. This data is processed to report the presence and location of leaks.

The tool calculates the locations of leaks by detecting acoustic pulses emitted by the ball at receivers attached to pipe appurtenances. The locations of the leaks relative to the receiver positions are determined by analysing arrival times of the pulses.

Access points

The access points (one at the insertion and the other at the extraction) into the main pipeline were also fixed during the field survey conducted by NRWM officials. They also finalised the spots where receivers would be mounted along the pipeline to track the smart ball.

KWA officials told The Hindu that the second technology, which comprises a sensor providing real-time results, will be deployed along the 1-km stretch along the 36-inch pipeline starting from Nirmala Higher Secondary School at Aluva on an experimental basis. The idea is to shoot videos of the piper interiors. The equipment comprises a small drag chute that uses the flow of water to draw the sensor through the pipeline, recording visuals on the way.

A decision to use novel technologies came after the NRWM unit found that Kochiites were receiving only about 50 per cent of the total production at the Aluva water treatment daily. Besides distribution loss and water theft, unidentified leaks were a major reason for water loss in the district.