Real-time monitoring & accounting of water sources
Rain gauges, level transmitters, flow meters RTUs & telemetry Cloud dashboards & alerts
Accurate water accounting Early anomaly detection Data-driven planning
Rivers, reservoirs, canals, groundwater systems
With almost 18 percent of the world’s population and less than 4 percent of the water resources available to the world, India needs an effective water management system more than ever before. From the villages hit by drought in Maharashtra to the city of Chennai’s overflowing stormwater drainage during the monsoon rains, there is always an element of extreme water situations present in India; either water is scarce or excessive depending upon which part of the state you visit and the time of year.
The fast-growing cities of India, industrialization and unpredictable patterns of rainfall have put an incredible amount of pressure on the water bodies of the country. Cities such as Bengaluru have experienced situations where borewells had run dry and tanker services were required for everyday water needs of the citizens. At other places, flooding has caused damage to houses and agricultural lands within hours. The imbalance in all this is precisely the reason why an effective water management system has become necessary for cities, farms and industries everywhere.
Advanced water management systems are far more than digging boreholes or building bigger dams. An advanced system for managing water sources includes rainwater harvesting, sewage treatment and recycling, groundwater replenishment, and a Water Resources Monitoring System that monitors the distribution network in real time. Leakages in pipes can be detected in minutes instead of days using sensors installed at critical points along the network, whereas metering makes it possible for municipalities to know how much water has been consumed in each location.
Technological developments have become the basis for successful water management in India without people even realizing it. A good example of a properly developed system is the Water Resources Monitoring System, which uses IoT-sensor devices and SCADA technology to monitor the water quality, flow rate, and pressure in the pipelines in real time and notifies about any contamination or leakage. This is exactly where companies like AMSET Technology from Pune come into play, designing the IoT-enabled Water Resources Monitoring System, along with water quality analysers, providing municipalities and industries with constant, accurate information instead of regular manual tests. A water treatment plant/housing society that is able to check the water parameters through the dashboard rather than waiting for the lab reports can solve the problem of contamination in the quickest possible manner.
Most of the rainfall occurs during monsoons in the country, and a lot of it ends up running down to the drainage systems and rivers. Rainwater harvesting techniques, whether it is rooftop in an apartment or a percolation well in agricultural lands, ensure that the water seeps underground rather than getting wasted. It has been made compulsory by some states in India to harvest rainwater through rooftops in all new construction projects, and there are very good results obtained in terms of groundwater availability in a few years’ time.
It is possible to save a considerable part of freshwater usage through the process of wastewater treatment and reuse without letting it escape from the system and flow into the rivers and lakes without treatment. The treated water may be reused in agriculture, industrial cooling, and even for toilet flushing and watering flowers in urban housing societies. Some cities that have established decentralized sewage treatment facilities have already noticed the benefits from the significant reduction in their freshwater intake. Promotion of such reuse at an industrial and domestic level should be an integral component of the strategy of the water management system of any city under growth.
The sphere of agriculture is consuming almost 80 percent of the country’s freshwater resources, and thus is the most promising field for applying efficiency measures. Drip and sprinkler irrigation ensures the delivery of water straight to plant roots, while flood irrigation is extremely inefficient. Modern technologies also include soil moisture sensors to provide watering of crops only in case of necessity and not according to some preset schedule.
Government programs to support micro irrigation have been beneficial, but there remains a need for such systems to be implemented by a greater number of small farmers for them to achieve their intended purpose with regard to national water availability.
Initiatives by Government Agencies to Promote Changes
The Government of India has started many programs that target increasing water security, some of which include Jal Jeevan Mission, which provides piped water supply for drinking purposes in rural areas, and Atal Bhujal Yojana, which focuses on the sustainable management of groundwater in water-stressed states. Together with water conservation campaigns that have been undertaken at state levels, these initiatives are increasingly making local governments see the need for adopting a structured approach to water management rather than just using short-term solutions in times of emergencies. Private sectors, especially the technological companies, have started playing an increasingly significant role in implementing these programs by government agencies.
Water problems in India will not simply vanish any time soon, but the right mix of policies, citizen engagement, and technology can go a long way toward improving water management in the country. Firms involved in IoT and industrial monitoring, for instance, such as AMSET Technology based in Pune, can help ensure that there is adequate visibility into the state of water bodies and treatment plants, thus making it possible for authorities to take action before a shortage situation becomes an emergency. In the end, establishing a sustainable water management process is going to come down to the effectiveness of the collaboration between governmental policy, technological innovation, and citizen behavior.