A new agreement with Microsoft is helping the technology company make progress against its water replenishment goal, part of its overarching water positive commitment.
In a first-of-its-kind replenishment project, FIDO’s technology has been deployed in London and across the Thames Water region to reduce water network losses through the power of actionable AI.
London’s water utility Thames Water has already committed to reduce its overall leakage to 20% by 2025 and to half leakage by 2050, but the average amount of water lost to pipeline networks globally is much higher.
The World Bank estimates that as a global average, 30% of the world’s piped water is lost before it reaches the customer, most of it due to leaks and theft. In developing nations, roughly 45 million cubic metres of water are lost daily, worth over $3 billion per year.
Fixing water losses positively impacts water availability with immediate impact across local watersheds in a quantifiable way. As well as making more water available to consumers and easing pressure on water sources, it also means less water needs treating, reducing a utility’s energy footprint.
FIDO is one of the sector’s most sophisticated AI solutions, with the unique distinction of being able to identify leaks and, most importantly, rank them by size, even in the noisiest networks, regardless of pipe material or condition. The Microsoft collaboration will help to expand FIDO’s coverage across the Thames Water network, giving visibility on an additional 350km of water pipe network.
Microsoft’s commitment to working collectively with partners and customers to protect freshwater is helping drive digital transformation for people, organisations and industries around the world.
In 2020 Microsoft pledged to be water positive by 2030. This commitment is made up of five key pillars: reducing water use, replenishing water sources, providing people with access to water and sanitation services, advocating for effective water policy and driving innovation and data digitisation.
Melanie Nakagawa, Chief Sustainability Officer at Microsoft, said: “The global volume of non-revenue water, or freshwater that is lost due to leaks, is estimated to be 346 million cubic metres per day, amounting to 30% of water system input volumes across the world. Water data and new AI-powered tools can help address this challenge and have a tremendous impact on water solutions like leak detection. This first-of-its-kind leak detection technology replenishment project in London with FIDO Tech will reduce water lost to leakage in London’s aging distribution network, leveraging FIDO’s AI-enabled acoustic leak analysis and is expected to save millions of cubic metres of water per year.”
FIDO has already seen multiple successes across the UK. The company has been working with Thames Water since 2021 and has partnered with Northumbrian Water to reduce leakage by 37% across 15 assigned district metering areas (DMAs).
Victoria Edwards, CEO Fido Tech
Victoria Edwards, Co-founder & CEO of FIDO Tech, said: “Microsoft is at the vanguard of a blossoming new corporate movement to replenish our watersheds, called water positivity.
The beauty is that what makes FIDO AI so disruptive, is what makes water positivity possible. It’s quantifiable, it’s transparent, it’s immediate and it’s local. It has a real impact.
“At the same time as we’re delivering tangible, measurable benefits locally, our model democratises water network digitisation more widely. Every water leak FIDO finds in central London adds a little more knowledge into FIDO’s neural networks, making it better at finding leaks anywhere in the world.”
Nevil Muncaster, London Operations Director at Thames Water, said: “95% of leaks are underground and not visible. That’s why using innovative methods, such as FIDO’s AI, is so important.
“We’re committed to finding and fixing leaks across London and our region, but the capital also presents challenges which makes it trickier, including noisier and busier roads. We strive to be at the forefront of leakage management, and by partnering with Microsoft and FIDO, we’re able to adopt and invest in this cutting-edge technology, helping us to overcome this challenge, protecting our precious water resources in the process. We’re also carrying out more than 1,300 repairs per week – that’s one every 7.5 minutes.”
