Remote reading of water meters – City starts pilot project

By Ofentse Mokae
24 September 2009

Cape Town loses almost 19% of its piped water through burst water mains and domestic leaks and, while this is well below the losses for most other cities in the country, it nevertheless costs the City more than R4m annually.

The city will be assessing the effectiveness of a pilot project for the remote reading of water meters. This uses a technology that can discern whether there are water leaks or other factors contributing to excessive water loss.

“The three trial areas, where meters for the pilot project have been installed, are the Sunset Beach residential area in Millerton, the entire Epping Industrial area and the N2 Gateway residential housing project”.

“Results from these very different areas would provide feedback and pinpoint potential problems that might arise if this project was to be implemented on a larger scale in future” said mayoral committee members Clive Justus.

He said the technology for these meters is well established internationally.

The new remote-read meters are able to measure the complete range of meter sizes and flow rates.

The use of the automated remote readings for all consumption within a suburb, combined with simultaneous readings of bulk zone meters supplying the suburb, will enable a detailed, zone-specific water balance to be calculated.

The system allows all water meters to be read automatically and simultaneously and at the exact end of the month, with minimal reasons for missed readings and estimated accounts.