Tumi Chamayou, Chief Enterprise Business Officer at MTN Business South Africa
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There’s much to enjoy about the hot, dry weather conditions that have come to characterise South African summers. The summers of the past three years however, have also brought with them a harsher reality: growing water shortages due to infrastructural failures, service interruptions and a growing deficit compounded by climate change.
These deep-seated issues require long-term solutions rather than quick fixes – particularly if those reforms are truly designed to reap far-reaching results for all South Africans citizens and businesses. Smart water technology and advanced metering systems offer a sustainable, accessible and financially viable way forward.
Examples from around the world illustrate the effectiveness of this technology. Foremost on this list of case studies is London’s Thames Water Initiative, a multi-billion pound initiative to upgrade the city’s ageing infrastructure, reduce pollution, improve water quality and manage water usage.
The deployment of over 1 million smart meters has made it possible to build a pay-as-you-go system where citizens only pay for what they use. The real ingenuity of this data however, lies in its ability to generate and analyse high volumes of real-time data, with up to 24 reads a day. Equipped with this information, municipalities can identify and repair leaks before they become costly, reduce water loss and provide better service delivery.
Similarly, several Polish cities have seen intelligent water management solutions cut water losses by about 30% within a few months, illustrating the potential of digital smart water systems to reduce unaccounted-for water.
Moving eastward to Singapore reveals a similar case study, where pilot trials of smart meters resulted in water savings of as much as 5% nationally.
These benchmark outcomes are evidence of the power of technology and big data as strategic tools that can enable municipalities – and South Africans at large, to do more with less.
In South Africa, the most recent No Drop Report suggests that the national average for non-revenue water has climbed to around 47%. What this means is that almost half of the treated, usable water produced by local municipalities is lost before it can be billed for.
Leaks, vandalism, faulty infrastructure and inaccurate metering costs South Africa billions of rands in revenue annually, placing even greater strain on precious water resources. These systemic factors, when compounded by the consequences of climate change, pose a serious threat to social wellbeing, economic growth and national resilience.
Manual meter reading, billing backlogs and outdated infrastructure are persistent drag factors, leading to inaccurate billing and blind spots that erode municipal finances and citizen trust. But technology has the ability to rewrite that script.
The majority of South African households rely on manual readings, which are prone to misreadings, logistical challenges and information oversights.
In contrast, smart metering provides for a continuous, accurate flow of data that is in turn used to inform accurate billing, more efficient revenue collection and the early detection of issues such as leakages or damaged infrastructure.
Smart meters work by digitally measuring water consumption per household in near real-time. These measurements are automatically transmitted to municipalities, integrating with billing and monitoring systems.
MTN stepped in as a partner in rolling out this technology as part of a three-year RT29 transversal contract to supply, install, manage and maintain smart electricity and water metering solutions across 257 local municipalities. This project is well underway, but there is much ground still to cover.
Collaboration is critical in making this system work within South Africa’s unique context and in a way that speaks to key national objectives such as greater economic inclusion.
Improved water efficiency is not only about enabling better service delivery at the level of households. It also contributes to broader development outcomes by supporting reliable municipal services, strengthening local economies, and ensuring more equitable access to essential resources in line with the National Development Plan (NDP) 2030 which requires a collective commitment to translating policy intent into practical, on-the-ground action for the betterment of all South Africans.