On Tuesday, the Kerala Water Authority (KWA) literally set the ball rolling in the capital as part of vetting a ‘smart’ technology for detecting leaks in water mains.

KWA engineers on Tuesday afternoon released the ‘SmartBall’, a small spherical device fitted with a sensor, through an air valve on Pipeline Road, Ambalamukku, and retrieved it successfully from the Kowdiar end. The ball, smaller than a regular cricket ball but covered with permeable foam, is an acoustic leak-detection device capable of spotting even small leakages in pipelines.

Developed by a Canadian company, the SmartBall is perhaps the only technology that can locate even small leaks which are otherwise undetectable using conventional ‘surface’ technologies, KWA Managing Director Ashok Kumar Singh said.

’The technologies available are purely subjective and require a high-level of expertise. We have not purchased the ball yet, but testing it,’’ he said. The modus operandi is quite simple. The ball is dropped into the pipeline and is carried along with the flow. The sound inside the pipeline is recorded by the sensor and variations - a leak will have a hissing sound, for instance - are also picked up.

 ’It’s like having a person inside the pipeline itself examining it for leaks. Since the ball is GPS-enabled, we will be able to pinpoint the location of the leak once the ball is retrieved,’’ a senior KWA official said.

But this technique is not without its drawbacks when used in complicated, inter-connected water supply networks such as the one in Thiruvananthapuram. The foam covering on the ball is one way of tackling it, say KWA officials.

For example, if the ball is released into a 500-mm pipeline, the coating can be thickened to prevent it from being drawn into a smaller pipeline that opens into the bigger one.

The KWA is toying with smart leak-detection technologies at a time when the water supply utility has been plagued by leaks on the old pipelines criss-crossing the city.

In one instance, multiple leaks on the main 1,200-mm pipeline had even prompted the government to set up a committee to investigate.

‘SmartBall’

KWA is testing ‘SmartBall’, a spherical acoustic-based leak detecting device that is released into water mains. Smaller than a cricket ball, the SmartBall is GPS-enabled.