The Bahamas Water and Sewerage Corporation and MIYA Deploy 600 Leak Detectors

After a successful 3-month trial in Jamaica, a partnership between The Water & Sewerage Corporation (WSC) and MIYA Bahamas has placed WSC at the "forefront of technological advancement”, with the aim of saving the company and consumers millions of gallons in daily water loss, through the installation of 250 leak detectors or "Bugs.”

The Artificial Intelligence (AI) technology bug-like leak detectors is equipped with the ability to alert operators of potential leaks, improving accuracy and response times of MIYA crews. These ´bugs´ which communicate with each other, are placed at an average distance of 200 ft and can detect leaks with an accuracy below 1m of leak location.

MIYA CEO Noam Komy said the use of AI places WSC among global players. 

"At the end of the day we’re putting WSC in the forefront of technological advancement in the modern world,” Komy said. "This is the most advanced AI solution for leak detection and it’s important for me to say that the way we work with WSC is a way that we as a private company have the obligation, not only to bring services into The Bahamas, but results to The Bahamas.”

WSC General Manager Robert Deal called the installation a huge step in improving efficiency across the board, while reducing interruptions in service for customers. 

 

"What it is doing is assisting us in locating leaks,” Deal said. "Presently, we’re working with MIYA Bahamas and they deploy teams who go out at night and find leaks. What this [device] will do is help us a lot, in terms of the efficiency and the pace or rate at which we find those leaks.” 

MIYA and WSC executives assure that the AI technology will not replace any MIYA Bahamas or WSC employees and will be applied over the next two years to improve accuracy and work times. 

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 drinking water while addressing critical sewage needs across the island. 

"We program this device using a mobile device, such as a smartphone, and we have programs for different modes,” according to MIYA Bahamas Leak Manager Rohan Thomas. "We can program it for overnight, we can program it for 24 hours, which is primarily what we use. Once we program this device, we deploy it. Now, ideally, we want to put this on fire hydrants and valves. But for more convenience we’re placing them on customer meters.”

Thanks to the 600 locations "bugs” that have been deployed so far, over 70 areas of interest have produced signals of potential leaks, with over 20 confirmed leaks, according to Thomas. The AI Technology will be mostly deployed in service connections to listen to the network and correlate the leaks; they will be removed and relocated every 5 days.

Since signing in 2012, the partnership between WSC and MIYA Bahamas has seen a significant reduction in the amount of  water loss, improved water pressure and significantly improved water quality. 

MIYA Bahamas and WSC request members of the public to avoid moving or disturbing the Al ‘bug’ devices.