In an earlier blog posting, we discussed smart grids. These are systems that can detect water flow throughout a community or large sections of a community. Among other things, if the flow changes, these systems can notify administrators immediately if a leak is developing.

It sounds like a good idea, right? 

However, what some water industry professionals are finding is that many utilities are not all that eager to take advantage of these new technologies. In some cases, there are very practical reasons for this. It is estimated that it will cost as much as $25 trillion to address the water infrastructure problems in the U.S. 

The Federal government is not stepping in to help, which means local utilities are on their own to do what they can with whatever funds they have. At this time, they do not have the funds to install smart grids.

However, there is another issue at play here, one you might not have expected.

These industry professionals report that some water utility companies prefer to address leaks and other water infrastructure problems after they have occurred. Why? It’s good P.R. As one U.S. executive explains, “Most current practice is to wait for the service-failure event and judge performance by reacting to it because the utility doesn’t get credit from regulators or the media for preventing leaks that the public doesn’t know about.”  In other words, prevention is just not good publicity.

Causing more problems is how regulatory incentives work in many parts of the U.S. After a water leak has been repaired - and the local utility company has been patted on the back - the utility company often uses the experience to raise water rates. 

However, in other parts of the world, such as Australia, Israel, and the U.K., the water utility company would be fined. In these countries, the belief is that the water utility should have had the technology in place to discover weaknesses in their water infrastructure that would have prevented the leak from ever occurring in the first place. Because of this, these three countries have some of the most advanced and efficient water infrastructure technologies in the world.

Further, they actively work with their customers, whether consumers, farmers, schools, or businesses, in adopting ways to reduce consumption. For instance, there are several brands of waterless urinals in the U.K. They have become commonplace in buildings throughout the country. Retrofitting - removing a water-using urinal and replacing it with a no-water urinal - is typically easy and not that expensive. And the savings - up to 35,000 gallons of water per urinal per year - speaks for itself.

For more information on how to reduce water consumption and use water more efficiently, contact a Waterless Co Specialist