ABB, the leading power and automation technology group, is playing a leading role in drastically reducing water loss in the capital’s water distribution network.
ABB FlowMaster flowmeters are helping the Saudi Arabian capital, Riyadh, to cut leakage in the water distribution network by around 40 percent. ABB’s market-leading range of FlowMaster flowmeters have been selected on three separate occasions as part of a large-scale project to modernize the vast but aging water distribution network of Riyadh.
Riyadh is a sprawling city that stretches over some 536 square kilometers, an area more than five times the size of Paris. About 60 percent of Riyadh’s valuable water supply is lost through leakage in the 10,000 kilometers of pipes that transport water to the city’s 4.5 million population.
The target set by the government-owned National Water Company is to reduce the volume of water and revenues that are lost to leakage to a more sustainable 20 percent. One of the most important tools to achieve this target is the 900 ABB AquaMaster and WaterMaster flowmeters that measure the flow and pressure of water in the network’s primary pipeline.
“These projects required a compact, robust and maintenance-free solution that would measure pressure as well as flow, and transmit the data via the GSM telecommunications network to the National Water Company’s central control room,” explained Adel Al-Sammak, ABB’s local business manager for instrumentation in Saudi Arabia.
The solution had to be exceptionally robust. And, for those locations where connection to the power network was not possible, battery-powered technology had to be used.
Both AquaMaster and WaterMaster share the same features of unparalleled accuracy, ease of use and advanced data communications. The former is powered by the AC network, the latter by a single ultra-long-life battery.
Their strong, durable design ensures a long maintenance-free operating life under the most difficult conditions. They can be buried directly in the ground or submersed in water without the need for costly protective chambers.
And, their measurement accuracy in both flow and pressure enables National Water Company to know exactly how much water is flowing through the main pipeline and to detect leaks as and where they happen.
“These projects have proved that no matter the environmental conditions, our instrumentation solutions continue to perform to the customer’s expectations. ABB is proud to be playing such an important role in projects that help to reduce water losses for the capital and its six million inhabitants,” added Al-Sammak.
