News
Water conservation project in the Eastern Cape
Bosch Munitech were appointed by the Eastern Cape Municipality to undertake a Water conservation and demand management project. One of the objectives of this project was to replace all water meters within the towns of Somerset East, Pearston and Cookhouse of which Geographical Information Systems (GIS) was pivotal for the facilitation of this process. Using existing datasets such as ERFs and GPS’d water meter located, the team was then able to determine unmetered properties. GIS was also implemented as a project management tool to illustrate progress on installation of these meters as well as pinpoint areas of concern.
Using the integration of GIS with excel, the team were able to update the billing information for each of these installed meters. Our field technicians captured all the information on site and this was updated to the attribute information for the newly created water meter shapefile. Overlaying the ERF data and newly created water meter shapefile, an analysis was done to determine which properties are vacant and does not need to be metered.
GIS was also used to conduct a trend analysis using the existing water billing information for all clients within the municipality, Bosch Munitech could then determine irregular readings of which will result in an onsite investigation undertaken to determine why this is occurring. Some of the findings were meters not located, faulty, or screens that were broken. In more serious cases there were cases of bypassing of water meters.
Ultimately this project was a success and GIS was key to achieving the project deliverables such as reducing water loss within the Municipality.