Lesira-Teq sells and supports intelligent metering technology and equipment in South Africa.
INTELLIGENT WATER METERING
Lesira-Teq has established itself as a leader in South Africa’s intelligent water metering market. The firm was established in 2003 and the innovative black owned company has introduced a water meter solution to the market which has transformed the industry.
“Lesira-Teq is a leader in the intelligent metering system industry in South Africa,” the company proudly claims on its website. “Lesira-Teq provides a comprehensive range of state-of the- art technology in over 350,000 intelligent water meters to some of the largest municipalities in South Africa including the City of Johannesburg, Mangaung Metro Municipality, City of Cape Town and many other water service providers, district and local municipalities.”
Why the need for such equipment, you might ask.
Well, there is a growing awareness that water is a finite resource and water demand management has become the mantra for water authorities across the globe – it’s why Lesira-Teq does so much work with local municipalities.
Its meters provide the end user easy access to important information about their water usage, and, importantly also educates them on how best to manage and preserve water.
Talking to Africa Outlook, Lesira-Teq’s marketing manager Naphtali Motaung described its technology as “completely unique”.
He said it offers various options for end users.
“For instance, our water meter enables the end users to monitor their water usage throughout the month and therefore helps to save water – and we have step tariffs,” he said.
Of course this is vitally important when it comes to South Africa’s water conservations efforts – one of the “biggest challenges” facing the water industry and the country according to Motaung.
“It is a big issue,” he told our researcher. Lesira-Teq remains a leader in this important drive.
“We need innovative products that can help educate our citizenry on the importance of water conservation. we need meters with functionalities that will enable end users to interpret numbers so as to contribute to a culture of water conservation on a large scale in our country,” Lesira-Teq’s managing director, Edwin Sibiya, said in a recent interview with water & Sanitation Africa magazine.
For some years the electricity metering industry has been developing smart meters for various applications. Water metering technology has always lagged behind, but certainly seems to have turned the corner through the innovative approach of companies like Lesira-Teq.
While populations increase every year, the quantity of water available remains constant, if it isn’t diminishing, making conservation extremely important.
Experts agree that all that can be done on the supply management side is to increase storage facilities and improve reticulation systems to handle the water more efficiently.
Much more progress can be made in terms of managing water usage and there is a realisation that a large amount of the water supplied, at great expense, to the end user, literally goes down the drain without being used for its intended purpose. Think here about instances when you brush your teeth – do you leave the tap running or turn it off ? That’s just one example.
This though is where meters play an important role, helping to educate consumers and help them manage consumption at consumer level.
The challenge for the water metering industry is to produce a metering system that is flexible enough to accommodate the complex requirements of both water supplier and water consumer and Lesira-Teq seems to be winning the battle.
“The Lesira-Teq intelligent water system is a completely unique and totally integrated design which offers five modes of operation in one meter,” the company’s website says. “all our intelligent water meters are manufactured locally and… can detect water losses caused by theft or leakages, saving water resources and costs.”
“Our system employs step tariffs; provides consumption and tariff rate information at a glance and provides a warning when set consumption limits are approached.”
It also allows “the user to choose the type of meter required to meet individual needs” and “automatically rewards the user financially for exercising control”.
“Large scale projects proved that up to 80 percent of normal water consumption can be saved,” Lesira-Teq says.
To learn more visit www.lesira.co.za.
