With smart meters, consumers can monitor water use on phones

Panaji: As the drinking water department (DWD) is working towards replacing old water meters with smart meters, minister Subhash Phal Dessai told TOI that the state is also planning to prepare an information management system for water supply once the meters are replaced with new ones. Phal Dessai said consumers will also be able to connect the smart meters to their mobile phones and monitor their consumption.

“If a home owner is away, and if there is an anomaly noticed in water consumption, they will be able to tap any leakage or theft immediately,” Phal Dessai said.


“We have around 800 water tanks (overhead reservoirs and ground level reservoirs), which will be also fitted with flow meters. Once there is online metering, we will be able to measure how much water is drawn between two valves. Through the information management system, we will be able to analyse the consumption, what time of the day it is higher etc and take measures accordingly. It will help us better tap leakages and save treated water,” he said and added that the new system, with the use of AI, will be able to generate analyses of the losses through a report created at regular intervals.

A proposal to replace all manual water meters with smart water meters, using a PPP model is under state govt’s consideration. It plans to allow the appointed agency to recover the cost of meter installations through water bills over a period of 10 years.

Phal Dessai said that the state is willing to pay the appointed agency around Rs 50 crore to help overcome at least some of the initial investment costs that arise while installing the smart meters.