Analysis of the use of a mobile application to reduce non-revenue drinking water

Abstract

Efficient management of drinking water supply systems requires a water meters. In rural areas of Guatemala, reading of water meters presents critical points prone to errors. To improve this process, research was conducted in the village of El Tizate, San Juan Ostuncalco, Quetzaltenango, Guatemala, to evaluate a mobile application as an efficient tool for reading a water meter in rural areas. This application was developed for Android® devices using Google AppSheet®, which allowed recording consumption and the time used for each reading of 28 users of the community. It was compared with traditional manual reading, timing the process, and analyzing the differences in times and results. The results revealed an average difference of 1.50 seconds in reading time between the manual method and the mobile application. In addition, higher accuracy of reading was observed in 82% of the readings using the mobile application. This research highlights the importance of addressing the problem of manual reading of drinking water meters in rural areas of Guatemala, focusing on reducing errors. The implementation of a mobile application was shown to improve accuracy and efficiency in the reading process. These findings highlight the relevance of adopting technological solutions to improve the management of drinking water supply systems in rural communities.