Making drinking water safe by enabling ‘smart’ water distribution networks

Impact: Economic, Health and wellbeing

Narrative

Population and economic growth are placing increased demands on water distribution networks (WDN) in developed and developing countries. To maintain performance, more proactive – “smart” data-driven – management of this critical infrastructure is required. The University of Manchester research has played a critical role in moving the industry toward this goal. This research enabled hardware specifically designed for extensive monitoring of water quality (e.g. turbidity, disinfection) to be developed and, subsequently, new methods to turn the produced data into knowledge. This resulted in
 commercialisation and licensing of the unique hardware - HydraClam®;ChloroClam® - bringing direct revenue of more than GBP3,650,000;
 additional sales of at least GBP9,200,000 through establishing a new global market for the network wide instrumentation;
 providing a means for water distribution companies to transition to smart-water management; and
 enabling reliable water monitoring in ‘fragile’ WDNs, such as refugee camps.
Impact date1 Aug 2013 → 31 Jul 2020
Category of impactEconomic, Health and wellbeing
Impact levelAdoption

Research Beacons, Institutes and Platforms

  • Manchester Environmental Research Institute

Documents & Links

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