Bhopal: The 8th Sustainable Water Management Conclave, Madhya Pradesh Chapter was organized by APAC News Network in association with Schneider Electric & AVEVA and supported by the Ministry of Jal Shakti, Government of India and Madhya Pradesh Jal Nigam.
The focus of the Conclave was on how Madhya Pradesh was looking to fulfill the current need for clean, reliable, and economical water for the entire population of the state. The Conclave also highlighted the sustainability initiatives launched by Schneider Electric with the objective to promote sustainable practices of water management across industries and individuals. The focus areas included technology interventions that would make water management sustainable, as well as key challenges that are faced by the water industry.
Even from the Madhya Pradesh perspective, the focus remained on saving water, as asserted by Sanjay Kumar Shukla, IAS – Principal Secretary, Public Health Engineering Department, and Managing Director – Madhya Pradesh Jal Nigam, Government of Madhya Pradesh. “We can save more water by reducing the dependence on forests. Instead, we can focus on creating small water harvesting units in villages,” reiterated Shukla.
He particularly enumerated the critical role of technology in water management and advised the sector to emulate the actions the power sector had undertaken decades back. “Automation of data happened in the power sector in the 90s, but unfortunately the water sector is 30 years behind in data automation. It is time to take action,” he advised.
Shukla also advised involving all community stakeholders in sustainable water management and connecting all the information currently available in silos. He also emphasized that technology plays a key role in making different water resources climate agnostic, ensuring operational efficiency, reducing power consumption expenses, and properly analyzing the data gathered.
From Schneider Electric’s perspective, Amritanshu Kumar, Segment Head, Water & Wastewater, Schneider Electric India emphasized that energy efficiency, asset efficiency, and network management are the three key factors in reducing water losses, be it in raw water consumption or in water distribution.
He concurred with Shukla on the importance of analyzing data for a more sustainable water management mechanism. “Corrective maintenance of an efficient water management system is critical. We need actionable intelligence on data from remote areas and then apply analytics for efficiency,” should be the mantra today for all water utility providers.
“Operational excellence, assets performance, energy management, and cybersecurity are the four key thought processes in the digital transformation approach of smart water solutions,” he added. The water industry is adopting digital technologies but needs supervisory and control mechanisms to ensure resilience.
On the other hand, Sanghamitra Mohanty, Co-Founder of APAC News Network stated that as the organizer and host of this conclave, we recognize the importance of collaborating with the public sector and industry to address critical issues such as water scarcity. We also believe that technology must be harnessed across all sectors to ensure water efficiency, safety, quality, and access. We are honored to collaborate with the Government of Madhya Pradesh for this event and look forward to more such collaborations in the future.
