After years of successful Leak Detection activities throughout New Providence, the partnership between the Water & Sewerage Corporation (WSC) and MIYA Bahamas has improved its performance in a whopping 300 per cent increase, from 1,000 to almost 3,000 per Year, giving WSC the ability to quickly fix leaks, fostering less interruptions for consumers.
This means now that crews have noted an increase in leak repairs throughout New Providence of 40 percent, from 3,800 to 5,300 per Month, this is in addition to the visible leaks communicated from the WSC Call Center.
The positive increase in leak detection has been also assisted by last year’s implementation of 600 FIDO AI-technology leak detectors per Month, across New Providence, that are equipped with the ability to alert operators of potential leaks, improving accuracy and response times of WSC crews. It works by deploying small ‘bugs’ at an average distance of 200 ft that communicate with each other.
"After several years with Active Leakage Control Teams finding 1,000 leaks per Year, we have created an incentive scheme for our 100% Bahamian leak inspectors’ and we have set an ambitious goal to boost the team morale and results,” according to MIYA Country Representative Alvaro Ramalho.
"We are proud to verify that 2023 was extremely successful, finding now 3,000 leaks, allowing MIYA and WSC to improve 300 per cent over last year’s results and reduce non-revenue water due to the successful repair of several non-visible leaks that had gone previously undetected.”
According to Ramalho, the first two months of 2024 continue to show a similar trend with around 400 leaks detected per month, with similar average pressure in the water system as per previous years.
The statistics come amid constant monitoring of the FIDO detectors´ performance across the island, which were installed last year and have been dubbed ´the most advanced solution for leak detection´.
The detectors are deployed in service connections to listen to the network and correlate the leaks, and subsequently moved and relocated every five days.
An assessment of water systems across New Providence conducted by MIYA in 2012 uncovered a loss of up to 6.87 million gallons of non-revenue water daily. An $83 million Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) loan secured a partnership between WSC and MIYA Bahamas with the aim of improving efficiency and quality of service provision of potable water to address critical needs across the island.
Since signing in 2012, the partnership between WSC and MIYA Bahamas has seen a significant reduction in the amount of non-revenue water loss, improved water pressure and significantly improved water quality. The average water loss in 2023 was below 4 million imperial gallons per day and in 2024 is trending to 3 million imperial gallons – saving valuable water but also significant savings for Water and Sewerage too.
MIYA Bahamas and WSC members continue to ask for the public’s support in not disturbing or tampering with the FIDO devices.