GSM based piped water theft detection system.

Abstract

National Water and sewerage corporation (NWSC), a body mandated by the government of Uganda to supply clean water to her citizens face great challenges arising from water theft. Water theft has led to increased Non-Revenue Water (NRW). Despite attempts to curb the problem, water theft has remained an issue in the operation of NWSC. Currently, the Corporation requires a dedicated system to handle this big challenge. Therefore, the GSM based piped water theft detection system that has been designed will help NWSC to handle this challenge. It operates in such a way that if any water theft is detected along the water distribution lines, an alert message is sent to the administrator so that an immediate action can be undertaken. The principle behind this operation follows the fact that Water Supply Corporations distribute water at a uniform flow rate defined according to the pressure zone of a given location i.e. different areas has different distribution pressures hence different flow rates but areas within the same pressure zone have same flow rates. This system is able to detect a considerable fluctuation in the flow rate and sends an alert message. The different forms of theft such as meter by-pass, meter reversals, meter tampering, and illegal tapping have been dealt with. For the theft that does not affect flow rate, the water supplied to the given service line will be metered such that no matter what a customer does to the physical meter, the actual amount of water consumed will be recorded. To attain this functionality, flow rate sensors have been interfaced with microcontrollers, the central processing unit of the entire system. The GSM Module has also been interfaced and is in charge of sending the alert message to the administrator’s phone. The administrator therefore can follow up to the area where suspected theft is taking place and investigations can start.