Smart water meters tackle water losses in tropical North Queensland

Top tourist destination, Port Douglas, is tackling water loss by quickly addressing leaks with the aid of smart water meters – a key tool in Douglas Shire Council’s water security strategy.

Hourly data collected by the meters easily identifies if a leak is present, empowering council staff to contact property owners, both residential and commercial, and advise them of the leak, saving water and the associated costs to treat and deliver the water.

Council has been actively contacting customers with leaks, and those customers have been extremely positive and appreciative as their water bills will no longer be impacted by unknown water losses, saving them money.

Council will soon launch a free Customer Portal which will give water users access to their water consumption data and allow them to set leak and high consumption alerts and send weekly and monthly reports by email.

This consumption data will give the community and commercial property owners a better understanding of how they are using water, where losses are occurring, and the impact of what might appear to be a small leak but is actually causing significant water loss.

The Customer Portal will be a powerful tool for holidayhome owners who will be able to remotely identify any issues on their properties before they cause damage to infrastructure.

The Port Douglas rollout was Stage One of Douglas Shire Council’s Smart Water Metering Program. Preparations for Stage two are being made which will include the rest of the Shire’s meters, totalling 4,700.

For more information about smart water metering visit www.taggle.com.au