Smart Water Meters On Their Way for Mount Isa Residents

Mount Isa residents are set to receive “game-changing” and highly accurate smart water meters that will enable them to keep track of their water usage quickly and easily.

At Council’s Ordinary Meeting on Wednesday, May 26, Council agreed to award a $2.93 million contract to Suez Water Pty Ltd to supply and install the smart water meters, replacing all existing 20mm and 25mm mechanical meters at residential properties across Mount Isa.

The contract includes the provision of a dedicated communication network to support remote reading; a meter-management system to collect, store and manage the data that is retrieved; and a customer web portal.

The smart water meters use magnetic resonance to record water usage and are a lot more accurate than traditional mechanical meters.

Mayor Danielle Slade said the project was set to be a gamechanger for Mount Isa residents.

“The accuracy of these smart meters doesn’t degrade over time. They’ll be accurate to within 2% on the day they are installed and will still be that accurate in 15 years’ time, whereas the mechanical meters’ accuracy definitely does go down,” Cr Slade said.

“This project is going to be a big help for us when it comes to tracking water throughout the city.

“We’ll be able to isolate and detect leaks a lot more easily, which will save the community both water and money in the long run.

“As well as this, residents will be pleased when they see the benefits of having a very accurate water meter that also has the capability of providing them with real-time data about their water usage and can alert them to any leaks on their property.

“On-property water leaks can often be costly, yet very hard to detect until it’s too late, so this will certainly help to curb this issue.”

It’s anticipated the installation work will begin in September and should be completed by the end of the year.