A Workshop on the Use of Innovative Technologies in Water Supply Networks to optimize water management, was held on Thursday, December 5th at the Foundation for Research and Technology- Hellas in Heraklion, in collaboration with The Municipal Water and Sewerage Companies of Malevizi and Hersonissos. The workshop was organized within the framework of the SmartWater2020 and EPIRROI projects, which are funded by the Interreg V-A Greece - Cyprus 2014-2020 program. The two projects aim to develop innovative systems and technologies for real-time monitoring of water networks, as well as for detecting and repairing hidden leaks in the network.

Across Europe, about 15-25% of the drinking water in the water supply networks is lost and thus not billed, due to leaks and damages. This results in a huge financial cost for water distribution organizations. This phenomenon has a particular impact on islands in the Mediterranean, such as Cyprus and Crete, also characterized by severe water scarcity and high desalination costs. Innovative technologies of intelligent water networks are being developed to support these organizations in their efforts to reduce water losses and improve the monitoring and management of the system.

During the workshop, the speakers focused on the actions of water management and distribution organizations with the use of intelligent technologies in water supply management and water saving, and presented innovative technologies of intelligent water networks and modern information processing systems developed in the SmartWater2020 and EPIRROI projects. The Municipal Water and Sewerage Companies take advantage of these new technologies in an attempt to better monitor their networks, reduce water losses and the cost of non-billed water, by reducing leak detection times, enabling early diagnosis of water quality problems, and attempting to efficiently regulate the pressure in the various zones of the networks.

The two projects are implemented by two inter-regional consortia from Cyprus and Greece, namely, the Cyprus University of Technology, the Limassol and Larnaca Water Supply Boards, The KIOS Research and Innovation Centre of Excellence operating within the University of Cyprus, and the Water Development Department from Cyprus,  as well as, the Foundation for Research and Technology- Hellas (FORTH) with the Municipal Water and Sewerage Companies of Malevizi and Hersonissos from Greece.

For more information: 

FORTH: Panagiotis Tsakalides, Professor, University of Crete, 2810 391730

FORTH: Poulikos Prastakos, Director of Research, 2810 391767 

DEYA Malevizi: George Kougioumoutzakis, Director, 2810 824625 

DEYA Hersonissos: Manolis Kosmadakis, Technical Director, 28970 32407