Digital water metering has a critical role to play in the context of oncoming El Niño conditions and water security.

The Bureau of Meteorology (BOM) has recently confirmed that the El Niño weather pattern is active again over the Pacific for the first time in eight years.

This means that hot, dry conditions are officially underway in Australia, particularly in the eastern states. Experts are predicting drought conditions ahead with increased heat and severity of rainfall deficiencies.

What does El Niño mean for Australia?

El Niño is a climate phenomenon of periodic warming of seas temperatures in the Pacific Ocean. The characteristic impacts for Australia typically include:

• Increased temperatures including potential heatwaves, evaporative stress on water sources and stress on agriculture and ecosystems.
• Droughts resulting from decreased rainfall often with devastating environmental and economic characteristics.

In these conditions, water security can become a critical issue for many communities.

Benefits of digital water metering in the face of El Niño

Authorities and water utilities typically try and protect communities from the consequences of such impacts through water restrictions.

While water restrictions and punitive measures can have an impact, they do little to empower communities to save water.

This is why digital water metering has a critical role in supporting water security in the face of oncoming El Niño conditions.

FLOWD is a digital water metering application providing water monitoring and leak detection capabilities to help protect from oncoming El Niño drought conditions.

FLOWD’s role in empowering communities

FLOWD’s CEO David Langdon said that the introduction of digital water metering on a national scale was imperative to address El Niño and water security.

“Currently our sites being digitally monitored with FLOWD, are achieving savings of between 10% and 35% of their annual total water use,” he said.

“This is achieved by providing access to water use data via the app, and water leak alerts.

The data provides data in a way that is easy to access on a phone or desktop, creates greater awareness and modifies water use behaviour. 

The app makes it easy to set water use parameters and receive an alert, for example if a water restriction is likely to be exceeded.

“The issue with traditional water metering is that it is nearly impossible to know that there is an issue.

“We wanted to help empower customers with better technology and easy access to data.

“Customers can save water and money and avoid the risk of a fine for excess water use, using FLOWD.

More information regarding FLOWD Sustainable Water Management

The FLOWD application works by connecting a smart water metering device to existing water meters. This communicates water use data via the internet, which is then reported to customers via the web-based application, on any device.

Customers can easily monitor water usage and receive automatic alerts if there is a water leak, or excess water use issue.

With El Nino conditions imminent, along with water charge increases across numerous jurisdictions, FLOWD Sustainable Water Management is a user-friendly tool empowering customers save water and money.

FLOWD is available to commercial, industry and council water users, and water utilities.

For a commercial installation, installation of a digital meter starts from $770 as a one-off cost. Subscription costs for the FLOWD app start from $96 annually.