End-User: Western Cape Provincial Government - Beaufort West Municipality 

This project focused on the water supply management for the small town of Merweville in the Karoo, South Africa. The water supply for this town is under the jurisdiction of the Beaufort West Municipality, situated over 100km away. While the town's population is small, with less than 2000 people living there, there is an ongoing drought, and deficits in water supply monitoring and management hampered the water supply to residents and farmers in the area. 

Integrator

INTEG System Integrators 

INTEG is a System Integrator company that offers various integrated industrial automation solutions throughout Southern Africa. INTEG emphasizes innovation, quality, and the generation of customer value.

Problem

The town relied on six boreholes and one reservoir to cater to its water supply needs. However, the total water inflow into the reservoir was around 4.1 liters/second, which was too low, even for such a small town. The supply problem forced the municipality to shut off the water supply daily, on a schedule, to manage usage under these conditions. Further, of the six boreholes in Merweville, many had broken equipment. 

None of the borehole equipment had any monitoring in place, making supply management difficult because of unreliable data. Pumps for the boreholes were also too big, resulting in the boreholes being pumped dry. In addition, the one reservoir leaked. The municipality monitored water usage manually - an operator was sent physically to each flow meter to record use. 

Solution

• The municipality built a new reservoir. 
• The new reservoir was equipped with appropriately sized pumps and equipment, enabling greater control and monitoring. 
• The solution incorporated telemetry because the individuals responsible for monitoring are located in Beaufort West, over 100km from Merweville. They required a way to monitor the equipment remotely. The customer requested a cloud-based solution. 
• Boreholes were equipped with solar power to limit the impact of load shedding on water supply. 
• Flow reporting and alarming were set up for monitoring battery utilization. 
• Flow reporting on power usage was also set up - providing information on both grid and solar power.
  

Results

• Complete visibility of the whole plant.
• Complete remote control of the whole town's water infrastructure. 
• Water usage reporting capabilities using the Flow Analytics Hub.
• There is no need to collect total water flows from each water meter manually - data is automatically collected and displayed on the appropriate report. This report is made available to the provincial government, so the process is now simple, and the data is trustworthy and accessible.
• Due to more effective management, the town's water supply is now stable. The reservoirs are consistently full, never dipping below safe levels.
• The municipality can easily monitor the entire scheme, and problems with supply are immediately evident, thanks to built-in alarm systems.
• Easy access to information allows for faster decision-making.
• The time to set up, from equipment procurement to commissioning was a mere two months. 
  

Project Info  

Number of Users: 6 (Mobile or predominantly mobile users)

Number of Measures: 83

Number of Charts: 34

Number of Dashboards: 4

Number of Messages Sent From Flow: 1

Data Sources: Ignition Historian 

Reports Generated: 4 (Daily, weekly, monthly, and annually)

Total audience: Provincial government, the GEOSS (borehole management), and the municipality’s engineer.