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Kerala
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Thiruvananthapuram
KWA squad to detect leaks
G. Mahadevan
| Armed with sophisticated equipment |
Officials of the JBIC programme trained the personnel
The squad was reconstituted in April
THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Armed with an array of sophisticated equipment and training by experts from Japan, the Leak Detection Squad of the Kerala Water Authority (KWA) is all set to become operational.
The squad will carry out leak detection studies on the main lines ferrying water from the KWA Aruvikkara treatment facility to various reservoirs in the city and then turn its attention to the distribution network. “There are some pockets in the distribution network that are water-deficient. The instruments that the squad has acquired will help them to pinpoint leaks in the distribution system. We can then take remedial action,” KWA managing director T.P. Mohanlal told The H indu.
Officials of the Japan Bank for International Cooperation (JBIC) programme who, last week, trained KWA personnel to carry out leak detection work have handed over seven instruments that can detect leaks in pipelines. The digital noise co-relator is one such instrument. A computer-aided device, this instrument displays on a screen the flow of water through underground pipelines, as an ECG monitor would display heart beats. “Sensors will be placed on pipelines every 500 m. By reading variations in the graph displayed on the monitor, we can identify where a leak is,” a KWA engineer and member of the squad said here. This equipment, made in the U.K., uses a combination of electromagnetic and sound waves to record data relating to the flow of water, he said.
The squad has been given three instruments that use sound waves alone to help detect leaks in pipelines. One is the ‘sound bar,’ a stethoscope-like machine using which KWA personnel can ‘listen in’ on the flow of water. A ‘noise rod’ is first placed on top of the pipeline. Listening in on headphones, KWA personnel can make out variations in the ‘flow noise,’ typical of a leak. A second version of this machine fitted with sound amplifiers has also been given to the squad. Yet another sound-based leak detection device that has been handed over to the KWA is so sensitive to noise that it can be used only at night when sounds generated by traffic or other human activity are the least.
Another arrow in the squad’s quiver is the flow meter, a software-based device used to gauge the quantity of water in a pipeline. According to KWA engineers, this device will be useful during ‘district metering’ of a particular locality to see if there is a leak in the local distribution lines. In this exercise, flow meters will be connected to pipelines bringing water to the locality and to those through which water flows out of the area. The total quantity of water pumped to the area minus the total of the readings in water meters in the area should, theoretically, indicate to the KWA the extent of the leak.
“The squad has also been given an instrument that can locate valve chamber covers buried beneath the road and a water pressure logger that can read water pressure in any line or tap at pre-designated intervals,” the squad member said. These instruments were used by consultants of the JBIC to carry out leak detection studies in Thiruvananthapuram, Kochi and Kozhikode. They were purchased in 2004. The squad, led by an assistant executive engineer and manned by four assistant engineers and four overseers, also doubles up as the anti-water theft squad of the KWA, its officials said. The leak detection squad originally functioned under the executive engineer (quality control). It was reconstituted in April 2007.
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