Clint Eastwood, the film industry icon, once said, “Aging can be fun if you lay back and enjoy it” #SaidNoWaterUtilitiesDirectorEver. Sorry Mr. Eastwood, you’ve clearly never experienced life in water utilities. The water industry is constantly grappling with old versus new. The moment a piece of infrastructure is put in the ground, it’s aging. If not cared for properly, problems, such as water loss, ensue. When it comes to water leaks there’s the good, the bad, and the ugly. Let’s get to know more about these characters.
The Bad
Aging infrastructure can result in non-revenue water and can become the bain of your existence. Water loss plays the bank robber role well–stealing precious revenue opportunities with every undetected leak.
The Good
But not all is lost. When technology, specifically smart meters, enter the scene and team up with cloud-based software, you can save the day AND water. Just remember, implementation doesn’t stop at installation. The show must go on.
The Ugly
On playing The Man with No Name character, Clint Eastwood said: “I felt the less he said, the stronger he became and the more he grew in the imagination of the audience.” While a vivid imagination complements the story of a film, it’s the last thing you want your customers to use when reading their water bill. Confusion and ambiguity create frustration and distrust with your customers. The strategic use of smart water technologies can empower your customers by giving them real-time usage data.
Data only takes you so far though. Just knowing their usage isn’t enough. Your customers need resources so they know what to do with the information your software is giving them. This is where the partnership magic really happens. An easy partnership you can take advantage of is just around the corner.
March 19-25, 2018 is Fix A Leak Week, a week created by the EPA and WaterSense, dedicated to teaching residents how to make simple home repairs to help solve the issue of water loss. Did you know that over a trillion gallons of water is lost nationwide each year? This significant loss is caused by seemingly insignificant household leaks. Every drop counts and those drops add up. Educate your customers on how making small changes, these typically easy DIY fixes, can add up to big savings. This benefits not only your customers but the long-term sustainability of your community’s water supply.
The West may have been the final frontier, but heavy growth and sporadic rainfall have made the West a leader by taking a proactive stance towards advancements in water infrastructure and technology. Master Meter, Inc. created an e-book to help you with the fundamentals of water financing and to demonstrate the good, the bad and the ugly of implementing smart water projects.
