The recently launched Smart Water Meter Challenge aims to install smart water meters at 270 schools in the drought-stricken Western Cape. Water savings at a single school during the trial period has been over a million litres per month.

The initiative, a partnership between Shoprite Group, Bridgiot, Cape Talk and Pragma Asset Management has seen a rapid uptake in smart meter devices being sponsored by corporate citizens. Flickswitch has partnered with Bridgiot by providing their SIM management services at no charge. 

” From the early stages of Bridgiot’s Smart Meter development, Flickswitch has been very excited about its potential to drive social impact” says Kees Snijders, MD of Flickswitch. “No one could predict the scale of the current drought in the Western Cape, but using technology to curb the impact is a quick-win solution. With the help of Flickswitch’s SIMcontrol service, the smart water meters can be monitored remotely and provide real-time data of how much water and money has been saved at each school. This allows learners to see the day-to-day effect of their water saving behaviour.” Bridgiot has a live online dashboard where all the data is displayed in real-time.

Thinus Booysen, founder at Bridgiot notes that technology must be at the forefront of addressing social issues. “The youth are the ones that need to understand the value of fresh water. Using technology, they now have a way to see what impact they can have” he says.  Every 100 Dropula Smart Water Meters can save enough water to cover 11 500 people’s daily water allowance.

“We all need to do our part to make sure the city doesn’t reach Day Zero, and we are proud to play a small part in this”, concludes Snijders.

The School Challenge is open for any schools across the Western Cape to sign up, and there is also an option for corporates to pledge for the installation of Smart Water Meters so that the roll out can extend to every school in the Western Cape.

For more information, to sign up a school or to pledge a Smart Water Meter, visit http://schoolswater.co.za/.