India is facing one of the worst water crisis in its history. This unprecedented water shortage has made Chennai the first Indian city to have gone dry. Its lakes have dried up and the city is crippled. According to report by The Economic Times, a study by the federal government think tank NITI Aayog has revealed that 21 Indian cities will run out of groundwater by next year, including the capital New Delhi and the information technology hub Bengaluru.

Two hundred thousand Indians already die every year because they don’t have a safe water supply, the report said. A shocking 600 million people face “high to extreme” water stress.

Just four years ago, Chennai was completely flooded due to heavy rainfall, completely destroying the city’s infrastructure. So how did the city go from being flooded to drought in just a matter of four years?

On the other hand, coastal areas are always under threat of being flooded in the monsoon season, while in other parts of the country, water is scarce. As per the Central Water Commission, India receives enough rain to meet the needs of its over a billion population. It says the country requires about 3000 billion cubic meters of water annually. Interestingly, it receives 4000 billion cubic metres of rain.

So then why are we in the situation that we are in?

The reason is water mismanagement.

IoT to the rescue

How can this issue be solved? The good news is that technology can enable efficient water management. Today, Internet of Things (IoT) can play a pivotal role in water conservation, dam management, flood management, irrigation management, and more. It can even forecast natural calamities and help save valuable lives and infrastructure. It can literally save our precious farmers from debt and a life of poverty.

IoT solutions such as smart water metres, smart water distribution solutions, leak detection, water quality monitoring, predictive maintenance, waste water management, analysis, smart irrigation can pave the way for a more intelligent and mindful way of handling this precious natural resource.

What is that one thread that ties all theses IoT technologies together? The answer is reliable internet connectivity. To enable robust internet connectivity in remote location such as dams, farms, water treatment, etc. plants is a major challenge. Conventional broadband connections are not feasible there due to lack of infrastructure. This makes VSAT the perfect fit. With 100% feasibility and dependable nature of satellite connectivity, VSAT is ‘the’ catalyst IoT needs to ensure effective water management in India.

IoT benefits to water management

IoT technologies powered by VSAT has huge potential in India’s water management. Here are a few benefits that demand adoption of the aforementioned…

Smart water metres can ensure accurate reading and better water usage management.

Intelligent water distribution solutions can track water needs and divert water from a region of excess to a drought area.

A leak detection solution can monitor health of pipes, kick-in predictive maintenance, detect leakage in real-time, raise an alert for quick repair and drastically reduce water wastage.

Predictive analysis can help the country forecast rains and be better prepared to make optimum use of the rain. It could also enable efficient flood management.

Water quality monitoring solutions can help monitor conductivity, salinity, PH, etc.

The connected universe can help engineers monitor, configure and manage various aspect of water management without having to physically visit sites. VSAT can bring better control and visibility.

Smart irrigation can help farmers maximise their water supply by monitoring the weather, soil conditions, evaporation and other factors. It can then help farmers automatically adjust their watering schedule to fit the actual conditions.

Sensors placed in reservoirs can provide real-time data to display the level of water present, calculate everyday usage and ultimately better conserve water so that another Indian city does not face the same challenges as Chennai.

In conclusion

This is just the beginning. The ways in which IoT can leverage on VSAT to transform water management are many. It has the potential to truly pull the country out of this water crisis and provide a sustainable solution for citizens spread across the length and breadth of the country, and for all the generations to come.