The “smart ball” technology succeeded in achieving financial savings for the Dubai Electricity and Water Authority (Duaa) of up to 12 million dirhams, during the past year, and the prevention of wasting 1.34 million cubic meters of water, by detecting leaks in underground water transport lines, which are usually difficult to discover using traditional technologies.
The authority stated, in a statement, yesterday, that the innovative technology contributed to the disclosure of 180 leaks in the water transport network in Dubai from its launch in April 2021 until the end of 2024, noting that this technology works to reduce operational expenses, where small cracks are treated in water transport pipes before increasing their size and causing wasting more water.
“In the context of the integrated strategy for water resources management in Dubai 2030, we adopt innovation and the latest smart and digital technologies and systems to develop innovative experiences to raise the efficiency and dependence of water networks and meet accelerated growth in Dubai.”
He added, “Our efforts resulted in the consolidation of the authority’s excellence in the world in the percentage of losses. The authority’s achievements exceeded the results of European and American companies, as the percentage of losses in water networks decreased to 4.5% during the year 2024.”
For his part, the CEO of the President of the Water and Civil Engineering Sector at the Dubai Electricity and Water Authority, Engineer Abdullah Obaidullah, said that “the authority’s cadres have developed innovative and automated systems to monitor the network around the clock, and we continue through the smart network to develop our advanced infrastructure for facilities and services management through smart and interconnected systems that depend on the current technologies and the latest technologies of the fourth industrial revolution.”
The “smart ball” technology consists of a small ball, with a highly sensitive audio sensor, which is inserted into the water network and runs quickly the flow of the water itself, where the sounds issued by water leaks or gas pockets, or any defect in the water pipes, each of which is characterized by unique properties.
After extracting the ball, a special program handled the information obtained, using sports algorithms that explain the exact location of the leaks, gas pockets or defects, during the passage of the ball inside the tubes.
The ball rolls inside the water pipes at a speed of more than three kilometers per hour, that is, it can examine more than 35 kilometers of tubes per day without affecting the flow of water.
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