Making Every Drop Count for the Great Barrier Reef

From the time we’re young, we’re taught not to waste water. We cut down on our showers and turn off the faucet when we brush our teeth. But, we’re not always on the lookout for other ways we waste water—like leaks. These can be hard to spot across homes and businesses, at least not before they’ve wasted millions of gallons and potentially caused serious and costly damage. In fact, more than a third of water pumped through distribution pipes can be lost to leaks.

Australia’s government wants to patch up these leaks and put a stop to all the waste. It’s part of their country-wide goal to get smarter about how they use water, monitor and manage water quality and save the Great Barrier Reef. And their Cairns Regional Council (CRC) is one of the teams who’s working to make it happen.

Itron says…

That’s why the CRC came to us at Itron. We’re committed to using technology to help conserve energy and water resources, so we made our way down under and got to work. We’ll start by helping to modernize the water distribution system across Queensland with a state-of-the-art IoT network and 55,000 ultrasonic water meters deployed at homes and businesses. All powered by a Cisco IPv6 network.

With smart sensors and distributed computing capability embedded in water meters and sensors, CRC will have the ability to see and control things like water quality and distribution from the source all the way to the end user. These networked smart sensors are designed to communication with each other and work together to alert people if there’s a leak in the pipes. So, water companies no longer have to spend months on costly manual inspections over miles of pipe. And people get a better sense of how much water they’re using, which can give them the nudge they need to conserve a bit more.

Cairns Regional Council Mayor, Bob Manning said this project has the potential to set the benchmark for the world, to better manage the environment, and in particular such iconic natural assets like the Great Barrier Reef. “With our partners James Cook University and Itron, we will actively monitor the quality of the water that is entering the Great Barrier Reef lagoon, which will result in better management of the health of the reef,” Mr. Manning said.

It’s Australia’s first smart water network. And it’s already on its way to saving the country millions of gallons of water each year while ensuring a clean, safe and sustainable water supply. The Great Barrier Reef is just one asset of the Queensland economy that they are determined to save for future generations.

As for us at Itron, we’re proud to help Australia make every drop count.

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