Background
Water is a fundamental resource for life. In Colombia, rural communities use aqueduct infrastructures that collect water from surface or groundwater sources, and then conduct it to the users' properties through a conventional water pipe or using other rudimentary methods. These rural aqueducts often operate with limited budgets, making it essential to optimize investments. Additionally, the conditions in rural areas for monitoring critical variables in the provision of water distribution services are difficult and there are few connectivity options.. Technical losses are also significant due to failures in pipes and storage tanks.
The rural aqueduct AUSCOLBOL of Bolivia, Caldas in Colombia, needed to be able to remotely monitor the conditions of storage tanks and the flow rates and volumes at some points in its drinking water distribution network. It required a flexible, long-range and easy-to-implement wireless solution that could operate for a long time without the need for constant visits to the sites.
