Itron has signed a contract with the Malian Drinking Water Supply Management Company (SOMAGEP-SA), to supply Itron’s residential and commercial & industrial (C&I) water metering automation and monitoring solutions.
SOMAGEP-SA, which serves 160,000 customers in Mali in Western Africa, will also use Itron’s software-as-a-service (SaaS) for analytics and meter data management, to decrease its non-revenue water levels.
Water scarcity is a major issue in Mali. SOMAGEP-SA chose to collaborate with Itron to start tackling water losses on its water supply network and develop a program to decrease non-revenue water.
The first implementation of Itron technology and services, a pilot project targeting a dedicated district metered area (DMA) in Bamako, La Cité du Niger, featured encouraging results in a short period of time.
SOMAGEP-SA was able to improve its network efficiency in the DMA by 14 percent, decreasing the amount of water lost every month by half. This positive implementation initiated a new contract to deploy Itron solutions in another larger DMA, where nearly 60,000 metering points are managed.
With Itron’s water metering automation solution, SOMAGEP-SA can better account for water usage and limit waste using detailed meter data to detect leaks, monitor system performance and improve water efficiency, the company said.
Also, with more accurate meters, the utility can better track water usage to ensure resources are being used efficiently. By decreasing wasted water, SOMAGEP-SA has the potential to increase water access to more people.
SOMAGEP-SA will use mobile data collection for residential customers to streamline meter reading and improve operational efficiency.
For its commercial customers, SOMAGEP-SA will use Itron’s WaterMind C&I water monitoring solution, to remotely monitor the daily consumption patterns of these customers and immediately detect events such as leaks, meter blockages, backflow, excessive consumption or significant pressure drop.
SOMAGEP-SA will also take advantage of Itron’s SaaS offering, which combines data into a single high-performance, secure repository that can be accessed anywhere using a web browser.
Rajani Baburajan