Officials of The Qatar Mobility Innovations Center (QMIC) at the Qatar Science and Technology Park, and Politecnico di Torino (Polito), Italy during the ceremony in Torino, Italy.
DOHA: The Qatar Mobility Innovations Center (QMIC) at the Qatar Science and Technology Park, and the Politecnico di Torino (Polito) in Italy announced the successful completion of a three-year project to develop an innovative system for water leakage detection.
The eventheld in Torino, Italy, was attended by a high level delegation from Qatar that included senior executives from QMIC, Qatar University, and the Qatar National Research Fund (QNRF).
In November 2009, QMIC and Polito launched a global research and development initiative called “wireless Innovations for water conservation” to tackle water leakage and quality issues in water distribution networks.
Kahramaa in Qatar, the Regional Administration of Piedmont, SMAT, and CCAM in Italy supported the initiative as conservation of water resources is of interest globally. Subsequently a three-year project for the development of a new wireless-based solution to detect and monitor water leakage in underground distribution networks was launched late in 2009. The project was funded by a grant from QNRF through its NPRP programme.
Abdulla Al Talib, Chairman of QMIC said: “Today’s announcement represents another example of the progress QMIC is making in tackling global challenges and creating locally-engineered solutions and intellectual assets. This is a good example whereby building local capacity and know-how and using it for tackling global problems clearly demonstrate the progress Qatar is making in transforming itself into a knowledge-based economy”.
Rector of Polito, Professor Marco Gilli said: “We are pleased with the achievement announced today. This clearly demonstrates that a combination of a common vision, together with following a collaborative model for research and development can deliver significant results that neither party can achieve on its own”.
Executive Director (CEO) of QMIC Dr Adnan Abu Dayya said, the new innovative prototype solution represents an end-to-end solution backed by unique intellectual property by effectively and intelligently identifying the location and severity of the leakage in non-metalic water pipelines in underground distribution networks. “Although a lot more work and investment are needed to translate this into a commercially-feasible solution, today’s announcement represents a milestone as all key components and technologies are in place and working in the current prototype solution,” he added.
Water distribution networks suffer huge losses all over the world. According to industry figures, the amount of water lost is typically in the range of 20 percent to 30 percent of production.
In the case of some older systems, the percentage of water lost could be high as 50 percent. Hence, leakage remains the major source of inefficiency and it represents an acute problem not only in developing countries, but also in developed ones. the peninsula
