Cape Town: The Water and Sanitation Directorate of the City of Cape Town has taken a major step towards technologically advanced water management, with the installation of its first smart water meter in Bellville. This officially marked the start of a city-wide rollout of Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI), that aims at early leak detection, by improving billing accuracy, and overall system efficiency.
The AMI programme forms part of a broader initiative by the Directorate to modernise water metering and improve service delivery. Particularly by replacing all mechanical water meters with digital technology, over time.
Reportedly, the City of Cape Town has allocated approximately R1.1 billion to the first phase of the programme. Around 83,000 existing mechanical meters will be replaced with smart meters, in the next coming three years. In the longer term, over 680,000 meters across Cape Town are expected to be upgraded.
Member of the Mayoral Committee for Water and Sanitation – Councillor Zahid Badroodien stated that installing smart water meters makes it easier to detect and attend to water leaks, resulting in water savings.
Therefore, the residents will also be able to track the volume of water consumed on their properties on the City’s App, to save money on their water bills. Among several other benefits, the new AMI meter readings are digitally automated, which provides accuracy in meter readings and customer billing.
There are several advantages of smart water meters that will benefit the city residents. The smart meters can automatically record and transmit water usage data, by eliminating the need for manual readings and reduces the risk of human error.
Customers will benefit from improved transparency, with access to detailed daily consumption data. As well as they will receive alerts from the City’s App on water leaks or unusual usage patterns.
Notably, the meters also include anti-tampering features, that are made from materials with no scrap value and have advanced monitoring capabilities to detect movement or interference. They are designed to last up to 15-years.