The Sardinian town of Oliena is built near the protected Su Gologone spring, a perfect water supply for the 7,000 residents. But serious leaks in the ancient town's aging network of pipes meant that, despite this natural resource, supply was likely to become intermittent and the spring was slowly running out of water. "In Sardinia, water distribution network losses have been a strong issue for decades, further exacerbated by the progressive degradation of the infrastructures due to inefficient management and maintenance," said Sandro Murtas, General Manager of water agency Abbanoa.
Traditional solutions weren't the answer. An innovative response to this social challenge was needed, so the municipal government and Abbanoa turned to Hitachi Drives and Automation's Water Management division, part of the company's social innovation strategy, which is centred on the use of technology and new thinking to solve social challenges.
To find a feasable and efficient solution, Abbanoa appointed Hitachi to scan the network, uncover the source of the problems, and address them in a sustainable way – a solution so successful it is now being rolled out across more than 30 towns and cities on the Italian island. "Due to climate change, water availability is changing everywhere" explains Giacomo Meroni, General Manager, Hitachi Drives and Automation Italy. "Sardinia is strongly affected by these changes and the region is recognised, due to historical reasons, to have a level of leakage higher than 50 per cent."
In Oliena, Hitachi’s scientific, sustainable approach that highlighted the use of technology and engineering to address social challenges slashed leakage by 60 per cent. "There's no one single technology that solves every problem, but there is a scientific approach that supports us in selecting the best available technologies for the water network we are working on," Meroni explains.
The project wasn't simply about fixing leaks one by one – with that tactic, new leaks continue to occur, and the overall problem doesn't go away. Instead, the project sought to uncover the causes of the leaks, in order to prevent them from reappearing and to improve the network's overall efficiency. "Our primary focus is the identification and elimination of the main causes of inefficiencies in water networks, not only leak detection," Meroni says. "Leaks are a physical element that cannot be cancelled, but should be brought to an acceptable level socially and economically."
Murtas explains that “In Sardinia, the traditional approach to leaks reduction involved a complicated tender process and long implementation time for major rebuilding projects. That's expensive and takes a long time to complete, meaning that the network is going to further deteriorate by the time work starts. A better and faster solution was needed.”
Hiachi used digital technologies to survey the network, speeding up the diagnostic and planning phase of the work, using an innovative approach to pinpoint problems in pipes. "For the leakage detection we used the step test together with electro-acoustic equipment (geophone, correlator, multi-correlator, noise logger) and a gas tracer", Meroni explains, adding that such work is also supported by detailed hydraulic analysis, pressure management, air and transients control. Following this approach, not only is the water wastage significantly reduced but, thanks to detailed pumps audit and optimisation, the energy efficiency of the water network is strongly improved.
Solving such social issues in innovative ways requires more than technology and engineering. It also requires the right people to come together to work on the challenge. "Working together with local partners… in collaboration obtains a good result," says Meroni. "Having the project supported by the management of the aqueduct and the technical staff in the field ensures high possibilities of a great result."
The result was just what Oliena had hoped. "The pilot project produced more than encouraging results," agrees Murtas. It reduced water leakage by 54 per ent in Oliena, and cut the minimum night flow levels in half, helping to improve efficiency. Similar projects in neighbouring Sardinian towns, Dorgali and Orsei, have seen similar results, with reductions in water loss of 44 and 53 per cent respectively.
Such projects are important to the local residents, who now enjoy a regular water supply, and to utilities, who can cut costs while providing better services. "We think that our methodology gives more value and duration to assets, reduces operational and maintenance costs, and also allows better energy efficiency," says Meroni.
However, access to water is also a wider social issue, says Meroni. "Water is a vital element and it is not obvious that we'll have it always available," he says. Social innovation projects can help tackle such serious challenges, making a genuine difference to people's lives – just ask the people of Oliena.
For more, listen to WIRED's special social innovation podcast at the top of this article.
--
Modern life is saturated with data and technologies are emerging nearly every day – but how can we use these innovations to make a real difference to the world?
Hitachi believes that social innovation should underpin everything it does, so it can find ways to tackle the biggest issues we face today.
Visit Social-Innovation.Hitachi to learn how social innovation is helping Hitachi drive change across the globe.
This article was originally published by WIRED UK
