DIGITALIZATION, SENSORS, ROBOTICS AND AI FOR WATER UTILITIES – For most water utilities and water institutions of the world, the use of digita...

DIGITALIZATION, SENSORS, ROBOTICS AND AI FOR WATER UTILITIES – For most water utilities and water institutions of the world, the use of digitalization, sensors, robotics, big data analytics and AI have been, for the most part, an alien concept. This goes for both many developed and developing country water utilities. Yet, if water utilities and institutions have to become efficient, and water crises are to be satisfactorily managed, they have no other alternative but to embrace these new developments, and the sooner, the better. Surprisingly, some Asian water utilities, like those in Singapore, and numerous water institutions in China, have made remarkable advances during the past decade to take advantage of these new developments to improve their water management policies and practices very significantly. Numerous Chinese water institutions are at least a decade ahead of their counterparts in developed and developing countries. See my views on the poor and unacceptable performance of privatised English water utilities https://www.ft.com/content/b93fd27c-6906-4d7d-a47e-745cff666226?syn-25a6b1a6=1#comments-anchor