2021 predictions

The forecast is for droughts and heavy rain, and water shortages.

Use less, lose less or pay the price

Rules on showerheads are changed by the Trump administration in its dying days.

Water futures in acres and feet

Water is being traded on Wall Street.

Confused by comms options?

Don’t know the difference between 2G, 3G, 4G, 5G, LPWAN, 3GPP, LTE-M, NB-IoT, and NR?

Zeolite. Nothing new under the sun.

Chinese researchers show how to use Zeolite as a low-cost household water treatment. 2,000 years after the Mayans used Zeolite at Tikal.

Will Trump poison the well for Biden?

Speculation is rife that Trump will create problems for Biden before he leaves office. Foreign policy issues like the trade war with China and bombing Iran to prevent them from developing nuclear weapons grab the headlines.

Imelda Marcos: fix the dams

Imelda Marcos has called on the Philippines government to fix the country’s dams and other water infrastructure.

Dam Chihuahua

Mexican farmers went to war last month to protect their water supply and seized 2 dams in Chihuahua. One woman was shot dead during the unrest.

New i2O mobile app for loggers

i2O Water is pleased to announce the release of the latest version of its Mobile Configurator app. The app enables i2O loggers to be installed using a mobile phone. The connection to the logger is via a proprietary USB cable which provides a much more reliable connection than wireless connections such as Bluetooth.

Water Night. No taps. One bucket.

Between 5pm on Thursday 22 October and 5am on Friday 23 October you’re asked to use one bucket of water, no taps, no showers, no running water. Use of water to protect from COVID or for religious reasons is exempt.

Don’t be alarmed

There are already too many alarms. With data analytics and AI there are going to be a lot more.

Water down the pan

Billions of litres of water are being wasted because dual-flush toilets leak.

Must do more

Water companies around the world are being asked to do more.

Central Device Management

Connecting all of your logging devices from anywhere in your network and providing detailed feedback - all from one portal

Pressure logging or acoustic logging?

Stuart Mawditt asks a great question: what delivers the best benefits acoustic or pressure logging?

i2O one of the 10 GreenTech companies to watch

i2O has been named one of the Top 10 Sunday Times Tech Track BGF Green Tech to Watch.

Remote access to systems the single most important technology during the pandemic

Water utilities who already had remote access to their systems were at an advantage when COVID-19 lockdowns were introduced around the world says Isle Utilities.

Leak detection – chasing your tail

£30m is a lot of money. For 100,000 listening devices. That cover just 20% of the network. Will they deliver the leakage reduction anticipated?

Watercare CEO resigns

A lesson for all water company CEOs.

Acuacar will use i2O’s iNet Network Analytics software in Cartagena, Colombia

Acuacar is the water company of Cartagena de Indias, probably Colombia’s most famous and most visited city. Over the last twenty years, Acuacar has transformed water services that underpin the city’s success, with clean water now available to 100% of the city’s 1 million population and its 2.5 million visitors a year.

Will smart meters save the world?

Don’t count on it.

Artesia Consulting and i2O Water announce client for SIDS

Following last month’s announcement of the first product resulting from their partnership, Artesia Consulting and i2O Water are delighted to announce Yorkshire Water as a client for the Supply Interruption Detection Services SIDS.

Aguas Kpital will use i2O’s iNet Network Analytics software in Cúcuta, Colombia

Aguas Kpital is a multi-award winning water company with a strong social conscience. It serves the city of Cúcuta, home to ¾ million people. The city is close to Colombia’s border with Venezuela, so one of its challenges has been a population swollen by the 1.6m refugees from Venezuela who have crossed into Colombia.

England will run out of water within 20 years

Foreigners think it always rains in the UK and they know it’s a group of islands surrounded by water, so this news may come as a surprise.

Infrastructure bill passes Senate in USA

The Democrat-led House of Representatives has passed the infrastructure bill designed to upgrade the United States’ crumbling infrastructure. But its chances of being approved in the Republican-led Senate is zero.

NB-IoT passes tipping point

As of June 2020 GSMA had identified 94 NB-IoT networks and 37 networks LTE-M networks switched on.

New Supply Interruption Detection Service “SIDS”

Artesia Consulting and i2O Water announce new Supply Interruption Detection Service “SIDS”.

Data Management Milestones

Water Finance and Management has identified 4 data management milestones.

Global Risks Report 2020

Water crises remains a major global risk.

Artesia Consulting & i2O Water strategic partnership

Artesia Consulting and i2O Water are delighted to announce a global strategic partnership that will make Artesia’s Data Analytics software available to i2O’s clients as part of the iNet advanced analytics solution.

Day Zero – Lessons for New Zealand

New Zealand is widely regarded as having dealt well with one crisis: COVID-19. But there’s another one they appear to be struggling with.

The cloud is the silver lining

Lockdown has demonstrated the value of cloud computing.

Ancient and modern

Lima is the capital and largest city in Peru. Its population is more than 10 million, making it about the same size as London, Paris, Seoul, or Chennai.

The Last Drop

In 2019 “sustainability journalist” Tim Smedley wrote Clearing The Air. It’s highly rated and was shortlisted for the Royal Society insight investment science book prize 2019.

Stock picking

Water companies have been busy pandemic planning. And their suppliers have no doubt been busy planning too, trying to work out the likely impact of the COVID-19 situation. There are several pointers now to water use being up overall in spite of commercial and industrial use being down.

Scenes from a dry city

World Press Photo has awarded the top prize for online video to Scenes from a Dry City. It’s a documentary set in and around Cape Town, South Africa about the water crisis and how the problem is worsening existing social inequalities.

Lessons From Lockdown

Not a school curriculum for remote learning but two observations.

Black Swan Events

Wave for water

World Water Day

The UN News says that water resources are often overlooked, but are an essential part of the solution to climate change.

Coronavirus outbreak

Coronavirus is impacting most things. First the good news.

It's alarming

The cost to instrument a network has fallen dramatically. You can get a pressure/flow logger for less than £200, US$260, EUR230 at today’s exchange rates. But what’s not so easy is to make use of the information that’s derived from those devices. Today we want to highlight just one function: alarms.

Regulators get tough

The UK’s regulator is seen as having been tough on UK water companies in its recent price determination. Headlines such as “It's about time Ofwat got tougher on 'game-playing' water companies” suggest that there isn’t much public sympathy. But Northumbrian Water, Anglian Water, Yorkshire Water and Bristol Water are all appealing. Thames Water, who had been thought likely to appeal, accepted the determination because fighting it would be a “significant management distraction.” And they lost a CEO candidate in the process.

Save water, drink beer

Glasgow, Scotland craft beer brand Brewgooder has come up with a cunning plan.

Early detection

3 customer calls from the same area and you know you’ve got an incident so you’re out in the vans. Trouble is, that incident is already well underway by the time 3 different customers have decided that they need to call you. So here’s a different way of doing it: triangulation.

Poisoned water chalice?

Sky News reports that Basil Scarsella, CEO of UK Power Networks, has withdrawn his application for the role of Chief Executive at Thames Water, just as an official announcement confirming his appointment was expected.

The climate crisis is a water crisis

Tim Wainwright, Chief Executive of WaterAid UK, writes that throughout the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting in Davos in January 2020 he had one consistent message: for the world’s poorest, the climate crisis is a water crisis.

Dani's dying to drink tap water

British actress Dani Dyer won’t drink tap water. She apparently thinks it’s poisoned deliberately by the Government and will eventually be used as a tool to cull the population.

Nile dam deal nearly done

Reports have emerged of a deal between Egypt, Ethiopia and Sudan in relation to the Grand Renaissance Dam. Ethiopia’s flagship dam on the Nile will power the largest hydroelectric power plant in Africa at 6,450 MW, making it the 7th largest in the world. This will solve Ethopia’s energy challenges in one go and enable it to export energy to neighbouring countries. Currently 65% of its population are not connected to the grid.

Liquid gold

Most people take water for granted. It’s only when it’s not available that we realise just how precious it is. The New York Times describes how private tanker operators in Kathmandu profit when water is scarce. “This is like liquid gold,” says a tanker driver, “maybe more than gold.”

All eyes on Iran

Countdown to a crisis Iran is facing a water crisis. The World Resources Institute says it’s number 4 on the crisis list after Israel, Lebanon, and Qatar. Water consumption is increasing, aquafers have been drunk dry, and investment is inadequate.

The USA isn’t facing up to the full extent of its water crisis

The problem is quantity as well as quality. Over the last decade, the USA has been rocked by, and focused on, what happened in Flint. This isn’t the place to retell Flint’s story, the facts of which CNN has kindly set out for us all. But Flint is a water quality issue. When it comes to water quantity, or scarcity, then most Americans think first of Africa, India, the Middle East, or of Asia. They don’t in general think about their own country.

Water will shape the world in the next 50 years

Along with AI, Algae, Implantable Tech, Climate Change, Cryptocurrency, Empathy, Genetics, Lab-grown meat, Surveillance, Universal basic income, and Virtual Reality. Experts’ predictions seem to be more heavily discounted than they used to be, but here’s a group of experts who answered a lot of questions, the answers to which were synthesized into 12 themes. One of those themes is Water.

Cut leakage and bills says UK regulator

£50 off the average bill and 16% reduction in leakage over the next 5 years. The UK water industry may have breathed a sigh of relief on Friday after the UK general election because it no longer faced being re-nationalised.

Past the point of no return

It’s an inexorability.

We’re sleepwalking into a global water crisis

The warnings are there but no one's acting on them.

Foreigners drink New South Wales dry

Claims the "Uncoventional Economist"

Limpopo

Just another South African water crisis?

What's a horrendous level of leakage?

16%?

Desiccated dichotomy or trifecta?

Look it up...

What will happen when water runs out?

Civil unrest...

Chile drought: 34,000 animals dead so far

790,000 more in poor condition...

How do you assess the security of SaaS?

Use two padlocks...

Another teenager with an important message

Dilutes the message...

Day Zero for the World

Are you ready?

Pumping Lake Cowichan

Boaters told to exercise caution when out on the water...

DIY Disasters

And how to avoid them...

Too little too late

There isn't time to build our way out of trouble. BNAmericas reports from Chile on the challenges the country faces with water supply.

Awash with puns

Unity set to splash into the data lake... Amazon couldn’t have coined a happier name for its centralized data repository than Data Lake as far as the water industry is concerned.

Rising stress levels

And near misses... The New York Times reports that a quarter of the world’s population faces looming water crises.

Resilience. Are you prepared?

For terrible headlines and a massive fine... On Saturday nearly 1 million homes in the UK lost power. But it wasn’t just homes. It was airports and hospitals.

Toilet-to-tap

Are you ready… Bangalore is India’s Silicon Valley. It was once full of pristine lakes and lush gardens. Now it’s a parched city of concrete.

2 layers missing

Missing layers are starting to cause problems..

Water needs a Greta Thunberg

Not a great iceberg…

The future of software

SCADA, Billing, and NEMWACOR…

Megacity runs dry

Official comment: only rain can save Chennai from this situation…

Predicting conflict over water shortages

Can analytics really predict water wars…?

You want another network to manage?

LoRa and Sigfox gain share but NB-IoT will win in the end…

iNet software does the work of 100 people

Using software to monitor the network is essential.

Water crisis hits industry in Mangalore

The media underplay the impact of a water crisis on industry.

Pegasus used to hack WhatsApp

Hackers have installed surveillance software on mobile phones using Pegasus, exploiting a vulnerability in WhatsApp.

Exciting time for water sensors

Ofwat associate director Alison Fergusson is reported as saying that the cost of monitoring and having real-time data has really come down.

SMS fallback? Do you have a typewriter in the office?

Using SMS as a fallback is like keeping a typewriter in the office in case the printer breaks. If you’re old enough, you’ll remember when offices only had typewriters. Then electric ones. Then word processors. Then computers. Let’s not mention fax machines.

Before the clock starts ticking

Last week’s blog focused on managing incidents once you become aware of them, noting how i2O’s eNet solution can support you in being more effective at this.

The clock is ticking

When disaster strikes, the clock starts ticking. In a water company that could mean a water quality incident, a burst; a sewer overflow, a pollution incident; a physical security breach, an IT security breach; or a health & safety incident.

IT weather forecast: Cloudy

Read through Water Briefing’s list of tenders (yes, of course we do) and you will notice something interesting. It contains some unfamiliar acronyms: IaaS, PaaS and SaaS. PaaS doesn’t stand for Pizza as a Service, but it’s used as a fantastic analogy as part of a nice primer from Hosting Advice that explains the acronyms with the help of some clear diagrams.

Canada’s water crisis

News from Canada’s Global Institute for Water Security. Climate change is going to wreak havoc with water supply. Glaciers are melting; river flows are becoming more unpredictable; and lakes are filling with toxic algae. Floods, droughts and wildfires, and the extreme damage they cause, are becoming more frequent.

Taking a leak

Manneken Pis - the “peeing boy” – by renowned baroque sculptor Jérôme Duquesnoy in Brussels is a major tourist attraction.

Smoke gets in your eyes

In most foreigners’ minds, England is a place where it rains quite a lot. But Sir James Bevan, CEO of the Environment Agency has warned that England could run short of water within 25 years. His language was dramatic. England faces an "existential threat", and in around 20 to 25 years, England will reach the "jaws of death” - the point at which we will not have enough water to supply our needs.

Cyber secure

The power blackout in Venezuela has caused widespread disruption. Including to the water supply. Tap water was said to have turned black. Dramatic pictures showed citizens going to extraordinary lengths to get water.

Cloud seed idea

Dam levels in Manila, Philippines are below critical levels. Thousands of customers have experienced limited or no water supply for several days after Manila Water cut its services without a prior advisory. Climate phenomenon El Niño has also been blamed.

The UK doesn’t have water meters

Readers around the world are surprised to learn that a large percentage of homes in the UK don’t have water meters. So how are they charged for water use? On the basis of a tariff that relates to the size of the home. Nothing to do with the amount of water actually used or the number of people in it.

Water as a weapon of war

Following a deadly terrorist attack in Kashmir, the Indian government has said that it will divert river water which Pakistan relies on.

Organisations struggle to corral data into useable and actionable intelligence

PWC’s CEO survey reports that organisations struggle to corral data into useable and actionable intelligence, and the main reason for their frustration is ‘lack of analytical talent’, followed closely by ‘data siloing’ and ‘poor data reliability’. i2O’s new iNet solution helps water companies address these three issues, and deliver actionable insight that will help identify and resolve network problems quickly (before customers call, reputation is damaged, and regulatory penalties apply), and schedule maintenance efficiently on the basis of condition rather than time/risk.

Paying the price of water

When you look at the image from space, you’d wonder why anyone living near the Great Lakes in North America was short of water. Water isn’t usually a significant household expenditure. But in Chicago the cost of water for the average family of four nearly tripled in the last decade.

UK Regulator industry exam results

Water industry regulator Ofwat has reviewed the 5 year plans offered up by UK water companies for 2020-2025. Unlike the new 9 – 1 GCSE grades in England, there are only 3 categories when it comes to marking: A*, Must do better, and Fail.

Matt Damon – water Bourne

Matt Damon and Gary White feature in this video by Bloomberg from this year’s meeting in Davos. Matt Damon co-founded H2OAfrica. Gary White founded Water Partners. And they merged to create Water.org. Water.org is a charity backed by a number of major organisations and foundations.

Detecting network problems before customers do

Pace “Detecting Network Problems Before Users Do” by Stefano Gridelli of NetBeez, 13 June 2017 In a perfect world, water networks have 100% uptime and adequate pressure. In reality, customers experience loss of pressure, water quality issues, and outages. In under-invested networks, this is even more frequent. Yet, providing a good customer experience is possible. Detecting problems before customers do is not a fortune teller’s trick, but something that can be achieved with the right tools and processes in place. So how can Network Engineers achieve Zen for their networks?

Drought Contingency Plan

Lake Mead is a reservoir that helps supply water for 25 million people in Nevada, Arizona, and California, and some in Mexico. The dam that created the lake is the Hoover Dam, built in 1936. It is one of a series of dams in the West of the USA that store water and generate electricity enabling cities like Los Angeles, Las Vegas, and Phoenix to exist in the desert. The water enables farming as well as supporting habitation. Increasing population, rising demand and years of drought mean that the reservoirs are running low. Dean Farr’s data and interactive map illustrate the issue beautifully. The challenges and implications get excellent coverage in Vox.

Toxic brine from desalination plants

A new study has highlighted the problem of brine discharged from desalination plants. More than half the brine comes from Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait and Qatar, with Saudi Arabia alone accounting for 22%. 3 countries - the Maldives, Malta and the Bahamas - meet all their water needs with desalination.

We only have 12 years to save the earth!

Flash, I love you! But we only have 12 years to save the Earth! In the film of Flash Gordon, NASA scientists claim the unexpected eclipse and strange hot hail are nothing to worry about. Not so in our current reality. The most recent Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report has warned that we only have 12 years for global warming to be kept to a maximum of 1.5C, after which even half a degree will significantly worsen the risks of drought, floods, extreme heat and poverty for hundreds of millions of people.

Summertime and the livin' isn’t easy

The UK Climate Projections 2018 study says that summer temperatures could be 5.4C hotter by 2070. The chances of having a summer as warm as this year’s summer (2018) is currently 15-20%. That’s going to rise to 50%. In other words, as likely as not. The warmer summers will also be much drier, with average summer rainfall dropping by 47%.

Are water firms ready for extreme weather events?

Ofwat, the UK water regulator, is set to take a hard line with water companies this winter if bad weather strikes again. A spokesperson for the regulator says it expects all companies to “show they have learned lessons and are prepared for whatever the weather brings”.

Mind the gap

Ari Mahairas is the special agent in charge of the Special Operations and the Cyber Division at the F.B.I.’s New York field office. Peter J. Beshar is the general counsel of the Marsh & McLennan Companies, and has testified frequently before the US Congress on cybersecurity. The two have written an article in the New York Times pointing to the vulnerability of water companies to attack by cybercriminals.

35% of Colombia’s municipalities face water shortages

The Colombian Ministry of Environment and Sustainable Development and the Institute of Hydrology, Meteorology and Environmental Studies has announced the publication of the National Water Study 2018. Colombia has 1,122 municipalities. In 2014, 318 were identified as being susceptible to water shortage. In 2018, that has risen to 391. A 23% rise in just 4 years.

Environmental extremists and overzealous bureaucrats

We often cite as the challenges that water companies face: increasing and urbanising population, ageing infrastructure, water scarcity and more extreme weather events, more demanding customers, an ageing workforce, and difficulties in raising or accessing capital. The congressmen who are pictured around the President of the United States of America when he signed the Presidential Memorandum on Promoting the Reliable Supply and Delivery of Water in the West, issued on October 19, 2018, believe that it is environmental extremists and overzealous bureaucrats who have created the water crisis in the West of the USA.

No water for 300 families in Greater Noida for 2 days

Greater Noida City is a north Indian city with a population in excess of 100,000, located in the Gautam Budh Nagar district of the northern state of Uttar Pradesh. A valve in the pipeline failed on Saturday. Residents complained about the lack of water. Water tankers were dispatched to provide temporary supply. Supply was resumed on Sunday evening. So reports the Times of India. It could have happened almost anywhere in the world.

Water wars

You may think that the Cape Town water crisis is over. But we can only really say that we’re past the peak reporting of it. There’s a fascinating article in the Columbia Journalism Review about the phrase “Day Zero” and the media campaign masterminded by PR agency Resolve Communications.

Next generation network monitoring

Next generation network monitoring. Coming soon from i2O... “A network monitoring system that: monitors the network for problems caused by bursts, leaks, changes in customer demand, theft, transients, engineering work, network design issues reports on the condition of assets in the network: pipes, PRVs, valves, pumps, flow meters, loggers, controllers, actuators reports on network performance

Why go into the office?

There are certainly downsides to working from home: Social isolation Lack of support and input from colleagues Interruptions and distractions IT issues

Need a dam? Try crowdfunding

Water companies face many challenges. Increasing and urbanising population, more extreme weather events, ageing network infrastructure, an ageing workforce, and customers becoming more demanding. The problem is they don’t have more money to address these challenges.

How to win when the chips are down

Incident Management Software has the following benefits: Faster time to resolution Quick access to relevant information Reduced time to analyse and determine next best action Easy and automatic escalation No missed steps No duplicated activity Visibility from any location of progress and decision logic Quick review after closure for lessons learned

Water crisis compounded by poor communication

The San Francisco Chronicle says that a new report identifies that poor communications compounded the challenges faced in Salem, Oregon, USA.

Event management

“An incident is an event that could lead to loss of, or disruption to, an organization's operations, services or functions.” There are processes relating to managing an event, to bring it to a conclusion as quickly and effectively as possible before it escalates into an emergency, crisis or a disaster.

Purchase price v lifetime cost

You may have read our thought piece about the lifetime cost of a logger.

Water crisis in the Middle East

Hannah Lynch has written an excellent article on the water crisis in the Middle East.

Australia worst ever drought

The world seems to be suffering droughts of greater severity than ever before this year.

Trunk mains

We often talk about ageing infrastructure as one of the challenges facing the water industry.

Feeling the heat

Temperature records have been broken around the world this year. The UK is enjoying a heatwave. At least most of us are. But the water companies are feeling the heat.

Russians hack control rooms

The Wall Street Journal reports that Russian hacking group Dragonfly APT has accessed utilities’ control rooms.

Resilience

The answer to resilience is to do more civil engineering projects says Civil Engineer magazine in its July edition. They are understandably looking forward to the report of the National Infrastructure Commission on what the UK’s infrastructure priorities should be and are expecting water to figure highly. They are critical of the water industry regulator Ofwat for focusing on further reductions in the level of leakage and demand reduction through metering.

New Delhi the new Cape Town

New Delhi will run out of groundwater in two years as India faces 'day zero' crises, according to the Telegraph.

Can we trust AI?

“Can we trust AI?” asks Technology of Business reporter Marianne Lehnis. Before we answer or even ask that question, we should ask :“Can we trust humans?” They can’t always articulate why they make the decisions they make, and even when they do we know that this is mostly a post hoc rationalisation for an unconscious choice. And we also know that their brains contain hundreds of bugs. Not literal bugs. Software bugs. 166 of them! They’re known as cognitive biases and they’ve been categorised.

Can water companies handle big data?

In short, the answer is no. But not for the reason you might think. More monitoring devices, especially on the network, are yielding ever increasing volumes of potentially valuable data.

Water Security

When you hear that there has been a meeting of the Ministerial Council for National Security in Iraq chaired by Prime Minister Haider Al-Abadi, you would be forgiven if you didn't guess it was about water.

Let’s tow an iceberg

The situation in Cape Town was an obvious trigger for the revival of the ‘tow an iceberg’ answer. There’s a long history of iceberg lunacy. In 1825 it was suggested that they could be towed into the southern ocean to equalise the temperature of the earth.

NASA warns about water

Water shortages will be the key environmental challenge of the century according to NASA. New data from NASA’s Grace satellite has revealed the extent of the problem.

Oh buoy!

The largest wave ever recorded in the southern hemisphere happened on Tuesday 8 May 2018. It was 23.8m or 78ft high. More than 5 double decker buses. (A double decker bus is a favourite height measurement. Like an Olympic swimming pool is for liquids.)

Royal Wedding boosts water charity

Prince Henry of Wales KCVO, better known as Prince Harry, and Meghan Markle have chosen Philippa Craddock as the florist for their wedding.

A dip in the gene pool

The water industry lacks customer focus and up-to-date IT systems. So says Perry Noble, partner in investment manager Hermes Infrastructure, according to Utility Week in an article that opens with ““Sticky” workforce and limited “gene pool” in senior management causing talent problems for water”. Perry made the comments last year at the Water UK City conference.

War and water

Avdiivka is a town in Ukraine just north of Donetsk. It’s in a war zone. In 2013 its population was officially 35,000. In January 2017 the BBC estimated the population to be between 16,000 and 22,000.

Climate change and growing global population threaten water security says UN

The UN has published its 2018 World Water Development Report. It calculates that global water demand is growing at 1% per annum mainly because of population growth. They say that whilst agriculture will remain the largest user, industrial and domestic demand will increase much faster. And the vast majority of the growth in demand for water will occur in countries with developing or emerging economies.

Demography is destiny

Of the 6 challenges facing water companies that we have identified (increasing population and urbanisation, more extreme weather events, an ageing network infrastructure, an ageing workforce, customers becoming more demanding, and difficulty in increasing revenue or accessing capital), the one that gets the least column inches is Ageing Workforce.

Top glove

You probably haven’t heard of the Top Glove Corporation. So you won’t know that it’s the largest rubber glove manufacturer in the world. It started in 1991 with a single factory and 3 production lines. Today it owns and operates 30 factories and more than 500 production lines in Malaysia, Thailand and China, with a capacity of more than 52 billion gloves per annum.

A smarter future for water distribution and non-revenue Water management

Our CEO Joel Hagan features in the latest edition of the Water Innovations magazine and provides his thoughts on how he believes innovation is helping to improve water distribution and non-revenue water management.

Pitbull – the global water terrier

It’s not often this blog provides a link to Rolling Stone. But it’s the music press that’s giving the most coverage to Miami-born Cuban American rapper Armando Christian Perez (also known as Pitbull, Mr. 305, and Mr. Worldwide) who has a new role as the United Nation’s Clean Water Here Global Ambassador, covered here in the NME.

Russian Government Cyber Activity Targets Water

i2O has sought to be a leader in information security. Why? Because we provide services to an industry that is responsible for critical national infrastructure. It seems that we were right to do so.

All hands to the pump

i2O doesn’t just sell its clients hardware and leave them to get on with it. We know that maintaining an estate of hardware, using it, and getting the most out of it requires time and knowledge that water companies don’t always have.

Baby it’s cold outside

The Sun newspaper reported that it was the coldest day ever in March. “Big thaw leaves thousands without water in parts of UK” said the BBC.

Queen Bee - lessons from a crisis

South African online news site IOL reports the South Africa Municipal Workers Union’s (Samwu) “uproar” over Cape Town managers’ salary hikes given the city’s water situation. But there’s something further down the column that caught our eye.

Water crisis will mean total crisis

The Global Risks Landscape 2018 from the World Economic Forum places Water Crisis as the 5th highest risk facing the world today. It has been pushed down the list by the increased likelihood of Cyberattacks and Data Fraud or Theft and their potential impact.

More extreme weather events

At i2O we don’t get drawn into talking about climate change and whether it’s man-made or not. We focus on the more immediate challenge: more extreme weather is being experienced more often. Lack of rainfall and excessive precipitation are both challenges for water companies. They impact the supply, storage and treatment of clean water. Reservoirs are depleted or overflowing; treatment works are overwhelmed and water quality is more difficult to manage.

Cyberfine for water companies

The UK Government has announced that critical national infrastructure companies will face fines of up to £17m if they fail to protect themselves from cyber-attacks, effective May 2018. Critical national infrastructure companies include energy, transport, health and water companies. They are being told that they should have in place “the most robust safeguards”. The National Cyber Security Centre has published guidance about what these should be.

Innovation in water conservation and leakage management

We recently wrote an article in December’s edition of Water Active highlighting why we believe innovation is helping to tackle water conservation and leakage management with the UK leading the way. You can read the full article here.

Beyond digital: Why smart water networks are a natural progression for the water industry

We recently wrote an article in December’s edition of Water Finance & Management journal outlining why we believe smart water networks are a natural progression for the water industry in order to solve the challenges they face; population growth, urbanisation and more frequent extreme weather events make delivering even adequate customer service through ageing infrastructure extremely difficult.

Is the media to blame for the Cape Town water crisis?

The mainstream media has finally noticed that Cape Town South Africa is going to run out of water in weeks. And now the newspapers and websites and tv programmes all carry special reports about it. The media is fascinated by the crisis, the response to it, and who’s to blame.

You need a Pressure Manager

Interesting news. Esval (Empresa Sanitaria de Valparaiso) in Chile has a Pressure Manager. A sign of things to come for water company organisation design or an oddity?

Shower together to save water

South African Airways chief flight attendant Zanda Setlaleleng has been recognised by the Western Cape’s Water Hero initiative. He is a man of many talents which include being able to greet people in 20 different languages. He uses the opportunity of addressing a plane load of people to offer them advice on how they can save water. Part of his technique is to use humour and that includes suggesting that people shower together to save water.

Water isn’t ancient history

Amman Citadel can be found in the heart of Jordan’s capital city Amman. It has been continuously occupied since Neolithic times. After conquest by the Greeks it was known as Philadelphia. The Romans left their mark too – the columns that stand on the site belong to the Temple of Hercules, and the amphitheatre carved into the foothills opposite the citadel can seat 6,000.

The future isn’t LPWAN

IDC FutureScape’s report that contains its Worldwide Internet of Things 2017 Predictions includes this:

The biggest desalination plant in the West

The coastal cities on the West of the Americas including Tijuana are growing rapidly and drought is affecting the Colorado River on which they rely.

Living on the edge

Edge analytics isn’t a form of extreme analytics with data scientists performing complex calculations on precipitous cliffs. So what is it, and why does it matter? It’s key to effective network monitoring. Here’s the theory:

SCADA isn’t a panacea

Kristina Foster, Marketing Communications Manager at Sensus and formerly of Schneider Electric has written an interesting post about asset maintenance.

H2O Will Trump CO2

Alpheus Water Research has written a wide-ranging piece explaining why they think that water will surpass climate change as the world’s main preoccupation in future.

Acuacar Leakage scores with new kit from i2O

The leakage detection & control department at Acuacar, the water utility for Cartagena, Colombia, is performing in style with new kit provided by i2O.

Lady Freethinker

Lady Freethinker is “a nonprofit media organization with the mission of achieving a free and compassionate world — for every species”.

Lessons from the sewers

In 1775, London watchmaker Alexander Cumming patented the S-bend. It was a beautifully simple solution to containing sewer smells in the sewer.

Dam it

The building of dams often has consequences downstream. No more so than in the case of Ethiopia’s flagship dam – the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD). The water will power the largest hydroelectric power plant in Africa at 6,450 MW, making it the 7th largest in the world. The river? The Blue Nile.

A water shortage…in Sweden?

Drought isn’t something you’d associate with a Northern European country like Sweden. You might, rightly or wrongly, have some other stereotypes in mind like blond hair, Volvos and Abba.

Earthquake

Mexico has suffered a series of earthquakes recently, of magnitudes 5.7, 6.1 and 7.1 with the number of people killed numbering in the hundreds.

False alarms

How many false alarms do you get from monitoring equipment on your treatment works and distribution network? How many times are alarms cancelled with no need for further action? How often are you woken in the night by a car alarm going off? All too often, no doubt.

Poor water management in the Middle East

A new World Bank report puts a figure on the cost of poor water management in the Middle East and North Africa at $21bn a year. It says that of all the challenges the Middle East and North Africa faces, it is least prepared for water crises. This is set against a background of increasing water consumption and unsustainable amounts of water being extracted in more than half the countries in the region.

The S in SCADA isn't for Secure

The S in SCADA stands for Supervisory, not Secure. An article in the Harvard Business Review entitled “Smart Cities Are Going to Be a Security Nightmare” points out that SCADA systems are particularly susceptible to frequent hacks due to poor security protocols, and a lack of cryptographic security and authentication factors. This is largely because the software dates from the last century.

The politics of water

Water and Politics: Clientelism and Reform in Urban Mexico is the title of a new book by Veronica Herrera, assistant professor of political science at the University of Connecticut. At $75 it’s not cheap; it’s not exactly a thriller; and 8 cities in Mexico may not be a large enough sample size. But the book considers an interesting question: the impact of electoral cycles on improvements in public services. Veronica finds that:

Cheque this out

Pucallpa is a city in the east of Peru. It is built on one bank of the Ucayali River, a major tributary of the Amazon.

Manmade glacier

More extreme weather is one of the 6 key global trends that i2O sees affecting its clients in the water industry (along with increasing population size and urbanisation, ageing network infrastructure, an ageing workforce, customers becoming more demanding, and difficulty in increasing revenue and accessing capital).

Drought: act now before it's too late

Droughts are occurring more frequently. Because populations are increasing and urbanising, the impact of drought on agriculture and people could be devastating. Major cities could run out of water and the resulting unrest could create civil strife, mass migration, and conflict.

The Water Court of Valencia

Eight men in black robes meet every Thursday at noon sitting in a circle on chairs in the street outside a cathedral. They are the Water Court of Valencia. According to the Times of India the Court has been in existence for 1,000 years. It’s an elected body who resolve irrigation conflicts in an agricultural area of Spain. Not perhaps a very modern model for regulation of scarce resources, but a democratic one at least.

That sinking feeling

Sinkholes make great pictures. There’s something unsettling about the idea of the ground opening up and swallowing houses, cars, even people.

#BEYGOOD4BURUNDI

The water industry isn’t known for its glamour. But Beyoncé and her BeyGOOD Foundation have announced plans, reported in the NME, to tackle the water crisis in Burundi. She has teamed up with UNICEF to offer two limited edition t-shirts in her online store, profits from which will go towards the #BEYGOOD4BURUNDI fund.

Water crisis

Let’s google “water crisis” in the news and see whether i2O’s list of challenges measures up (recognising that there is a skew to English language reporting).

Underinvesting in infrastructure can cost big in the end

It’s only when disaster strikes that we look back, recognise, and accept that there has been a significant shortfall in investment in ageing infrastructure. For the residents of Grenfell Tower in London, there are questions now about whether the cladding, which was used to cost-effectively address environmental issues with heating and cooling, was a conduit for the rapid spread of fire. There are questions about whether a sprinkler system should have been installed, as would be mandatory in a newly-built tower of a similar height. There are questions about the availability of fire-fighting equipment in common parts of the building.

Remember where water comes from

The Chinese proverb Remember Where Water Comes From can be found on the wall outside the offices of the Taiwan Water Corporation (TWC). Whilst the Taipei Water Department (TWD) looks after water for the capital, Taiwan Water Corporation is responsible for the rest of the country.

It makes you WannaCry

The rapid global spread of ransomware WannaCry at the end of last week should have made everyone think hard about security.

Water water everywhere, nor any drop to drink

This is a picture of Cape Town and the Cape of Good Hope, South Africa. The picture is an image from NASA generated from a Landsat satellite image and elevation data from the Shuttle Radar Topography Mission (SRTM). The city centre is located at Table Bay (at the lower left), adjacent to Table Mountain, bounded by the sea on two sides.

The playbook for best practice outage management

In a recent event experienced by Anglian Water in the UK in March 2017, a tweet was picked up by local media outlet LincolnshireLive from resident Phil Scrafton who tweeted at Anglian Water: "No water for 20hrs, 1 week old baby needs feed, multiple calls to you yet still no bottled water. Why aren't you looking?" The rather ponderous headline read: “Tesco out of water as hundreds STILL have no supply after 20 hours (including family with newborn)”.

Drought and about

California’s drought may be over for now but they’re heading into summer and California’s rain levels vary more than anywhere else in the United States. By 40 to 50% in either direction compared with eastern states which fluctuate by only 10%. So the outlook isn’t rosy.

i2O prices down, water tariffs up

While i2O is busy reducing its prices, some water utilities are putting prices up. That’s not always going down well.

More extreme weather events

The U.S. Department of Commerce’s National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration reports that February 2017, December 2016 – February 2017, and 2017 year-to-date are the 2nd warmest in the 1880-2017 records. The previous year stays in 1st place.

Chile

Our new man in Latin America, Patricio Orozco, has just spent a week in Chile meeting our existing clients and introducing some new ones to i2O’s solutions.

News OfWat’s going on

Every 5 years, the UK water regulator Ofwat does a price review which sets limits on charging and sets expectations about what customers get for those prices. The next price review will be in 2019, known as “PR19”. The timetable includes a final methodology statement from Ofwat by the end of 2017, and UK water companies submitting their business plans by September 2018 for review by Ofwat, so the industry is already gearing up for the process.

It's time to visit Colombia

Your preconceptions about Colombia could be 20 years out of date. Now is the time to visit before the country is inundated by tourists. i2O has a number of clients in the country and is hoping to bring the benefits that those clients have achieved to other cities. Our CEO and Latin America sales team spent last week visiting the country.

Sydney sweats it out

As the UK enjoys another week of freezing winter temperatures, Sydney Australia enjoys (or suffers) a heatwave. news.com.au called it a “summer of sweat”. Sydney has just experienced the hottest January on record with temperatures above 40C.

Water: spiralling cost or drop in the ocean?

Water UK reports that the average household water and sewerage bill in England and Wales for 2016-17 will be £389 - an increase of £2 (less than 1%) compared with the previous year. Despite this small increase, water and sewerage companies will deliver a 5% average drop in real terms in prices between 2015 and 2020.

Corruption in the Water Sector

Transparency International says that corruption in the water sector is widespread because infrastructure projects are large, expensive and complex and provide opportunities for abuse in procurement and contracts.

A new era for Water under Trump?

Water Technology Executive Jim Lauria has made an impassioned plea in An Open Letter to President-Elect Trump On Water.

Riparian reserves

Raconteur tells us a worldwide water crisis is looming. The context they give consists of two of i2O’s six major challenges for water utilities: climate change, and population growth and urbanisation.

Smart network innovation, growth & transformation - 2016 in review

2016 has been a year of expansion, innovation and acceleration at i2O. Smart water networks are increasingly seen as a high impact, low cost and immediate way for water utilities to address the challenges they face: increasing populations, urbanisation, more extreme weather events, ageing infrastructure, and more demanding customers.

Analysts rate i2O as sector leader

Lux Research has identified i2O as a dominant player in the Internet of Things for the Water market.

Oh my god…this is horrible

Nick Danby has written a great article in the Harvard Political Review about America’s Crumbling Water Infrastructure. It references 4 of the 6 big challenges that face the water industry globally: population growth (and urbanisation), ageing infrastructure, more extreme weather events, lack of new money. The other two are an ageing workforce (meaning knowledge is being lost) and greater customer demands (based on improved service from many other industries).

That sinking feeling

Many sinkholes are the result of erosion by water. Most of that is natural. Some of it is man-made.

Software R&D spending key to success

WaterBriefing reports PwC’s finding that firms who shift R&D spend to software and services have faster revenue growth, or, put another way, are more successful at creating solutions that clients value.

i2O CEO meets H E Juan Manuel Santos, President of the Republic of Colombia

Joel Hagan, CEO of i2O, is invited to attend an official function at London's Mansion House during the official state visit of H E Juan Manuel Santos, President of the Republic of Colombia which includes a meeting with British Prime Minister Teresa May.

PPK's ambitious plans for water in Peru

Pedro Pablo Kuczynski Godard, better known as "PPK", became President of Peru in July this year.

Could a botnet of loggers bring down a water utility?

The smart devices that make up the Internet of Things are proving very popular with malicious hackers. This is often because security wasn’t a key consideration for their manufacturers.

Save water: swap grass for gravel

Turf Terminators of California, USA allows residents to utilise water conservation rebates for turf removal. Rebates of $3.75 per square foot are available to Los Angeles residents for turf removal, the theory being that grass needs to be watered and without it water usage decreases markedly.

East London water supply not cut

But large parts of Buffalo City Metro, in the South East corner of South Africa, from Mdantsane to Bhisho, Dimbaza and King William’s Town have been without water. East London is fed by a different supply dam, Bridle Drift for which Amatola Water isn’t responsible. Potable water supply has been affected after union members abandoned their posts at 11 treatment plants last Friday according to DispatchLIVE. The South African Municipal Workers’ Union (Samwu) is demanding the sacking of the board chairwoman Nokulunga Mnqeta over allegations of causing chaos, stoking factionalism, and corruption.

“SaaS” has given itself a bad name

The trouble with the name SaaS is that it’s an acronym. The acronym obscures the fact that SaaS is a service. People too often assume it’s just software. And that’s causing confusion.

Will competition in water retail in the UK achieve its objectives?

Ofwat, the UK’s water regulator, has announced plans for greater competition in the UK water market. They hope that it will be a driver of improved customer service, noting, for example, that “only two of the water companies in England let their customers manage their bills using an app".

Will tourists drink Bali dry?

Thomas Wright, PhD Candidate in Anthropology at The University of Queensland has written an article picked up by The Sunday Morning Herald highlighting a potential crisis for Bali.

Storm clouds gather over Perlis, Johor

The New Straits Times reports that communities in Johor and Perlis in Malaysia are reeling from a water shortage following a prolonged drought that has affected their livelihoods and the way they live.

Smart water networks set to become pervasive

Our CEO, Joel Hagan, recently wrote an article in July's edition of WIPAC Monthly.

Decongestion charge

The UK Local Government Association has called on the national Government to give more powers to local authorities to charge utility companies for the time they spend digging up busy roads. Today only authorities in London and one county in the South East of England can do so without having to get government approval first.

Global Water Intelligence ranks i2O top quartile

In its latest report Global Water Market 2017, Global Water Intelligence ranks i2O above its direct competitors in terms of being both a market leader and having multiple solutions. i2O also ranks as top quartile alongside much larger companies: ABB; metering companies Itron, Sensus and Diehl; and leak detection specialist Gutermann.

Iran looks for help with water projects

In January 2016, international sanctions were lifted following the ‘nuclear deal’ with Iran. Since then, Iran has been busy sorting out barriers to trade and cooperation with countries around the world, notably Germany and Japan. Last week was the UK’s turn. The Iranians were looking for aircraft and energy and water project finance.

Colombian miracle

It’s an exciting time in Colombia. After 50 years of civil war and 30 years of unsuccessful negotiations, the government and Farc have signed a ceasefire. A full peace deal is expected to be signed within weeks. Most Colombians had assumed this day would never come.

Anglian Water reports record low levels of leakage and interruptions to supply

Anglian has announced its preliminary results for the year ended 31 March 2016, which were picked up by Utility Week.

The Power of Water

The temperature in India broke records last week. The new record was set in Phalodi, a city in the desert state of Rajasthan, where temperatures reached an astonishing 51 degrees Celsius.

Water: the urban/rural divide

A report from the BBC says that Nestle extracted 36 million gallons of water from a national forest in California last year to sell as bottled water, even as Californians were ordered to cut their water use because of a historic drought in the state.

Drought causes power cuts and changes in hairstyles in Venezuela

President Nicolás Maduro has announced a 4 day working week with three-day weekends to include Fridays for the next two months. El Niño has produced a series of extreme weather events this year: while Chile suffers excessive rainfall, Venezuela is experiencing a drought. Hydroelectricity provides the bulk of the country’s electricity supply.

Water crises - risk or reality?

In 2015, the Global Risks Report from the World Economic Forum had Water Crises as the highest impact issue in its Global Risks Landscape. Above Terrorist Attacks, Critical Information Infrastructure Breakdown, Fiscal Crises, etc.

Heavy rain in Chile leaves 4 million people without drinking water

Santiago, Chile, is a pretty dry place. Average annual rainfall is just 8% of that in Dartmoor, UK. But it’s just experienced an extreme weather event; treatment plants were overwhelmed and drinking water supply had to be cut.

We're running out of water, and the consequences could be dire

Newsweek has republished an article that was originally published by Reveal about the geopolitical ramifications of water shortage.

Water, water, everywhere, nor any drop for jeans

A new article from the BBC reports that it takes an average 11,000 litres of water to make a pair of jeans. You probably didn’t realise that. It takes more than four litres to grow an almond and there are a lot of almonds growing in California, which continues to suffer from drought. Water is also used extensively in the Oil & Gas and Utility industries.

Smart networks smoothing supply of water

The move to smart water networks is accelerating in the water industry because it allows utilities to confront their major challenges, extend asset life in the network, reduce operating costs and deliver better customer service without the high cost of building new supply infrastructure.

Smart Networks are the answer. What is the question?

Joel Hagan, CEO at i2O, has written an article addressing how Smart Networks can help water utilities tackle some of the problems produced by increased customer demand, ageing infrastructure and extreme weather conditions. This article is entitled ‘Smart Networks are the answer. What is the question?’ and is published on Water Online.

Fun, Food and Fundraising for Water Aid

Our last fundraising event for Water Aid was so successful, we thought it was high time we organised another one and what better time than at Christmas! Another i2O Water Bake Off was on the menu again and better than ever, with employees testing their culinary skills with ’empanadas’ and mince pies. Cakes, fudge and flapjacks were also baked for all to enjoy as it’s the festive season and therefore the time for tasty treats and sweets.

Smart water networks will endure when the IoT bubble bursts

In its latest Hype Cycle for Emerging Technologies, the analyst firm Gartner places the Internet of Things (IoT) at the top of the life cycle phase it calls the ‘Peak of Inflated Expectations’. Beneath the hype there lies a reality: the IoT is delivering value in practical and unsensational ways that will endure.

World leaders say water crisis is number one global risk

Water security, according to the World Economic Forum (WEF), is one of the most tangible and fastest-growing social, political, economic and environmental challenges faced today. Based on its potential impact to Society, WEF ranks the water crisis as the number one global risk.