However, scaling solutions is difficult in a highly localized and fragmented system of more than 155,000 different U.S. water-supply corporations. Little venture capital or corporate research and development is focused on the water challenge, leaving it to government organizations to close the gap between water supply and demand — a task that is estimated to require $50 billion to $60 billion in annual investment over the next 20 years.
One rarely discussed but critical potential tool to help understand and tackle this problem is the Internet of Things (IoT), the trend of embedding sensors and wireless connectivity into common devices. Here are three ways the IoT can help address the complex challenges surrounding water security by enabling governments to better define priorities for water supply, consumer demand and governance.
1. Improving Yield
Increasing water supply is often the first option considered as water inventories drop, and traditionallycompanies have invested heavily in finding new sources of water. Midland, Texas, for example, recently spent $197 million to tap into a new source 67 miles away. As new sources dry up, however, utilities might instead focus on improving the yield for delivery; more than 40 percent of water infrastructure is over four decades old, and water-supply systems lose 16 percent on average during delivery.One of the challenges the IoT could solve is knowing exactly where to repair to improve this yield — and to understand whether the capital cost of repair will be offset by the volume saved for that area. Sensors can provide a more precise understanding of water flows and help prioritize improvements.
This even applies to individual homeowners who need not know anything about the state of water infrastructure. Stopping or slowing in-home leaks, which can waste up to 10,000 gallons a year, can boost the yield on sanitized water. Products such as LeakSmart, for example, combine a simple sensor and actuator to detect when a pipe has burst and shut off the water.
2. Lowering Demand
Conserving water by lowering demand is another powerful way to extend limited water supplies. Boston provides an early example: When demand outstripped supply in the early 1980s, the city avoided $500 million in capital infrastructure costs through a conservation campaign that led to a 43 percent reduction in water consumption. IoT applications promise to make conservation campaigns even easier and more effective by tracking progress and offering — or even automating — new ways to conserve.Simply giving consumers more insight into when or where they use water and how they compare to neighbors can also encourage conservation. The Municipal Water Department in Northern California's East Bay, for example, partnered with WaterSmart and saved 5 percent in water consumption by giving 10,000 customers access to a Web portal that showed how each stacked up against families of comparable size, as well as by providing ideas for improving water conservation. An IoT system might further support conservation efforts by helping users understand where and how they use water most, and applying rules or reminders to domains such as showers, appliances or pools.
3. Automating Use
The greatest savings in water consumption will come from automating agricultural and municipal use: More than 70 percent of water consumption today is for agricultural use, and 60 percent of the remainder goes to urban landscape maintenance. In both instances, agribusiness companies often irrigate regardless of current conditions, risking overwatering rather than drought. Sensors with advanced algorithms can help address both problems, aggregating measurements of soil moisture, heat, humidity and slope to analyze how much water plants actually need.A startup called Hydropoint partnered with several landscape companies to install these systems for urban parks, golf courses, and corporate campuses. Hydropoint’s system cut the Los Angeles suburb of Santa Clarita’s irrigation costs by more than 25 percent and is projected to save the city approximately 180 million gallons of water annually.
By creating greater insight into both supply and demand, the IoT can help government and utilities work together to improve governance of the water ecosystem. However, information alone does not make the water system more efficient. Localities also must build behavioral and technical foundations to allow people to act on the information.
Max Meyers and Claire Niech are GovLab Fellows and senior consultants in Deloitte Consulting LLP’s Strategy and Operations practice. William D. Eggers leads Deloitte’s public-sector research and is the author of eight books, including his newest, The Solution Revolution: How Business, Government and Social Enterprises Are Teaming Up to Solve Society’s Toughest Problems (Harvard Business Press 2013). They are the authors of the new Deloitte University Press study Anticipate, Sense and Respond: Connected Government and the Internet of Things.
