Metering in Botswana has never been explored or exploited as evidenced through scarcity of locally established specialist metering manufacturing, repairs, and maintenance companies. Regional and international companies have been dominating the metering space for years.
With the new changes in legislation forcing for locally produced goods and services, the emergence of new industries like mines, heavy manufacturing, agricultural water projects, industrial and commercial facility developments, recent robust rollout of water pipeline projects nationally, the need for metering is expected to grow exponentially.
The National Water debt is at BWP1.2 Billion due to the use of conventional billing methods and effects of the pandemic to household debt. At executive level, digitalization is one of the top government priorities to unlock and enable high productivity, create meaningful jobs and delivery of services to the people. Of recent, there has been significant change in policies to remove red tapes to enable more players into the industry.
With smart water metering still being relatively new in Botswana and the utility corporation still using conventional piston metering to bill over 500 000 clients nationally, Leeroy Systems is introducing the smart water metering technology in Botswana. The team at Leeroy Systems managed to partner with Lesira-Teq and LoRaWAN network operator to complete a fully resourced pilot factory plant, provided full LoRaWAN coverage in the Capital City Gaborone and has commenced with a Pilot project to install smart water meters at industrial, commercial and residential premises.
READ: Metering Industry Association launched in South Africa
Extracts from the pre-feasibility study conducted by Leeroy Systems identified high water loses at bulk carrier, reticulation and complaints from clients on wrong billings, high water bills, excessive undetected water leaks, pipe bursts, and poor revenue collections from water usage by the billing agencies. This directly inspiring the need to invest in Smart Water Metering in Botswana.
“The Private Sector and institutions are responding well towards Smart Metering setting the pace and defining the future of intelligent metering as a way to reduce and contain utility costs and saving water” stated Roy Johannes, Managing Director of Leeroy Systems.
The long-term strategic partnership between Lesira-Teq and Leeroy Systems has already yielded remarkable imprint of IoT integrated Smart Water Metering technology into the Botswana Market. “Our teams work in unison to continuously develop new solutions, share experiences through knowledge transfer and peer review mechanisms to develop a World Class competitive product” concluded Roy Johannes.
During the Covid-19 Public State of Emergency, where movement restriction and clean Water was used as a deterrent to the spread of the virus, Leeroy Systems collected 100% of revenue from its clients paid to the Utility Corporation using Smart Prepaid Water Billing technology, an undisputable testimony of Smart Prepaid Water billing. The smart meters ability to detect hidden underground and wall buried pipes, affording the users to react real-time to stop the water loss and save their money.
