The Delhi Jal Board (DJB) will establish a state-of-the-art, real-time monitoring system for ensuring Delhi’s water supply as well as the proper functioning of ‘Water Treatment Plant’ (WTPs) through the ‘Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition’ (SCADA) system.

“This system provides details such as the pressure and flow of water at pre-decided important locations in the water supply system,” the DJB Vice Chairman Raghav Chadha said while visiting the ‘Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition’ (SCADA) system water monitoring system centre ahead of the onset of summer to ensure DJB is prepared to meet and monitor the increased demand as temperatures rise. He was accompanied member (Water) and other senior officials of the DJB

Chadha said, “Delhi is a land-locked city and dependent on other sources for the supply of water. Ahead of the brutal summer, where the demand for water increases greatly, it is essential that Delhi Jal Board is prepared to meet and monitor said demand.”

DJB produces 935 MG of potable water per day. Delhi is a landlocked city, and as a result, has limited resources of water. To conserve water, it is essential to measure the quantity of water by installing flow meters, he said, adding that the DJB has also initiated projects for the installation of flow meters and the setting up of a SCADA Centre.

The DJB intends to install about 3,200 flow meters for the water auditing of Primary and Secondary systems up to the District Metered Area (DMA) level. A total of 3,192 flow meters have already been installed and their integration with the SCADA Centre is under progress.

Chadha also expressed concern over the urgent need to complete the installation of flow meters for better monitoring of water supply through SCADA across Delhi as well as for the identification of water losses. He said, “Keeping in view the limited resources of water and the importance of water conservation, the identification of water losses across Delhi must be the prime objective of SCADA.”

Talking about future planning of the DJB, he said that the objective of the DJB is to establish a state-of-the-art, real-time monitoring system for Delhi’s water supply as well as the proper functioning of WTPs through the SCADA system.

“This system provides details such as the pressure and flow of water at pre-decided important locations in the water supply system,” he said.

“It also provides real-time monitoring and integration of other instruments like water quality in the remote terminal unit (RTU) and SCADA, benchmarking of water supply for the entire region, integration of further analytical software for in-depth analysis, water auditing of the quantum of water distributed, auditing of the primary and secondary systems across Delhi, calculate water losses for better monitoring and quick response, leakage management and reducing the scarcity of water particularly in the summer months,” he added.

After inspecting the SCADA water monitoring system, the DJB Vice Chairman also issued immediate instructions to concerned officials to complete any pending work on war footing and for the uninterrupted operation of the SCADA centre to ensure efficient monitoring of water utilization across Delhi.

Chadha said, “The deployment of an effective alarm system in SCADA will help issue timely alerts on the quality and quantity parameters. It has been seen that DJB is facing regular crises in water production due to various pollutants, such as ammonia and chloride. Turbidity is another parameter that must be factored in during water production. An alarm system will go off as soon as the parameters cross their limits in raw water. This in turn will allow the DJB team here to take any preventive measures required.”

The Vice Chairman also issued directions for the installation of a remote computer screen at his office in order to personally monitor Delhi’s water supply system through ‘Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition’ (SCADA) system.