Water is precious… desalinated water even more so!

Northern Chile, one of the driest regions in the world, suffers fresh water availability limitations and faces a real challenge sustaining water resources in the face of growing demand. While water is a scarce resource in Northern Chile, it is rich with copper and minerals, making it a hub for mining facilities. Unfortunately, the mining industry is highly dependent on water as the mining process requires huge amounts of water – the same water that is scarce in this dry region…

The city of Antofagasta is a striking example. A city with a developed mining industry located in the Atacama Desert, the driest desert in the world. Antofagasta addresses this challenge by desalinating water. 60% of the city’s water is currently desalinated, and by 2015 it is forecast to use 100% desalinated water. But desalinated water has its costs. In addition to the high investment required for planning and building the plant, operational costs are very high due to high energy consumption. This makes desalinated water much more expensive than fresh water. According to the American Chemical Society, the average cost to produce one acre-foot of desalinated water from seawater ranged from $800 to $1,400 (compared with $200 per acre-foot for water from other supply sources).

Recently, Eddy Segal of TaKaDu was the guest of the Aguas de Antofagasta water utility in a visit to the city’s impressive desalination plant. As you can learn from the photos, Aguas de Antofagasta’s desalination plant is one of the biggest and most impressive in the region.

Announcing TaKaDu’s New Version – TaKaDu 4.1

Introducing TaKaDu 4.1 – the same winning formula, with a few key enhancements and improvements.

The new version is available to all users as of today. As usual, all the user needs to do in order to enjoy this new version is to log into the TaKaDu account.
What’s new? Click to read more!

WATEC aftermath – Saving Water is Never a Luxury

Yesterday was the third and last day of WATEC, the bi-annual water exhibition and conference. Since its debut in 2007 WATEC has gained recognition as one of the biggest water technology exhibitions, with emphasis on innovation. That’s an angle we clearly embrace in TaKaDu, and we therefore took an active part in organizing the event. We also took advantage of the location and had most company employees come in for booth duty.

This busy international event takes place every two years in Tel Aviv. In the previous WATEC event, TaKaDu was an early stage company presented at the innovation hall. Now, just a couple of years later, we are in a very different position – exhibiting in the main hall and attracting many visitors and delegations (as you can see in the pictures).

Amsterdam: Low water loss means high interest in the next level of efficiency

It was a long week in Amsterdam, but it was worth the effort. TaKaDu is now a proud veteran of the International Water Week in Amsterdam this week – and more specifically, the Aquatech exhibition.

During the four days of this huge show (over 20,000 visitors, according to the organizers) we found out that the European market is thirsty for smarter solutions in the field of water network management and monitoring. Despite the downturn – and maybe because of the downturn, water utilities from all over Europe are eager to invest in making water distribution networks more efficient through the use of data.

The Connection between Water Prices and the State of Water Networks

The Annual Meeting of the New Champions 2011 (“Summer Davos”) is taking place this week, and we thought it’s a great venue to announce our first research report. This report, planned to be the first of many, shows the connection between water prices and water loss rates. Water loss is a key metric that impacts the sustainability, conservation and efficiency of water networks.

In some of the world’s cities, water is priced lower than the costs to pump and transport it, let alone sustain its delivery infrastructure: the network of pipes, pumps, reservoirs and valves that brings water to our homes. In some places water is free.

The question raised by TaKaDu’s research was whether the price of water also affects water loss rates. Theoretically, water underpricing can lead to undervaluing of water and underinvesting in the water distribution network.

Water pricing doesn’t impact residential consumption alone. Globally, only about 10% of water is used residentially, while the remaining 90% is used for agriculture and industry, so water mispricing obviously affects the way all sectors use water.

You can read more by clicking on the ‘Continue reading’ link below.

Summer Davos and Water Management

Being awarded the 2011 Technology Pioneer from the World Economic Forum is a great opportunity to be part of the thought leadership process that is Davos. We’re about to join Summer Davos, in Dalian, the PRC, on September 14-16.

As part of the Ideaslab at Davos, Amir Peleg, our Founder and CEO, will take part in a September 15th panel on New Solutions to Water Management.

We’ll keep you updated!

TaKaDu and Maan’tech

Avital Cohen

Last week, on  July 7^th, I had the great honor of participating in a face to face meeting with Israel’s President and Nobel Peace Prize recipient, Mr. Shimon Peres,  at his official residence.

Maan'tech Meeting with Shimon Peres

This all came about as a function of TaKaDu’s participation in Maan’tech.  Maan’tech is an Israeli coalition that promotes the employment of the Israel’s Arab population in high technology companies.  It aims to boost the recruitment of Arab candidates into Israel’s leading high tech companies, which are a huge engine of growth for the economy as a whole. Its mission is to launch the natural integration of Arab employees into the Israeli high tech industry by supporting both candidates and employers throughout the entire recruitment process.  TaKaDu’s strength lies in its employees, and as we strive for exceptional people and candidates, we deeply believe in the drivers underlying the Maan’tech vision.

We’re honored to be partners in the Maan’tech coaliation, which includes huge enterprises such as Cisco, HP, Intel, Google and … TaKaDu, which came to life in 2008 and is still a small company compared to the standards of these huge employers.

Posing for a picture with the president at meeting's end

The objective of this specific meeting was to discuss the ideas and insights since the establishment of Maan’tech. There was optimism in the air. The inspiration of meeting the president further drove us to become part of this great potential change.

CNBC Interview at Singapore’s International Water Week

Amir Peleg, Founder and CEO of TaKaDu, was interviewed this morning by CNBC.

Here it is:

Listening is believing: TaKaDu goes leak detecting in the UK

Shirley Segal and Omry Tuval of TaKaDu went leak detecting with a real leak detection crew two weeks ago, in the UK. They had to see (listen) for themselves how the leaks detected by TaKaDu translate into field work.

Omry and leak, exchanging thoughts

This is part of an effort to understand how TaKaDu alerts are translated into actions by real-life repair and detection crews — even including yellow-jacket wearing. Hopefully, integrating TaKaDu alerts with the realities of water utility staff and processes will make them better.

TaKaDu's Shirley Segal, Yellow Jacket and Potential Leak

The Other Scarcity in the Water Sector

In this blog post, Amir Peleg, TaKaDu’s founder and CEO, argues that water isn’t the only thing that is scarce in the world of water. Innovation, necessary to protect us against a future of diminishing water availability, is missing even more.
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In the 20th century the world’s population has grown threefold, while the world’s water consumption is six times higher. The World Economic Forum predicts that water scarcity is about to become a global crisis. Insufficient water could mean food shortages, demographic changes, political strife and even armed conflict. Lifestyle changes that come with economic development have enormous “virtual water” price tags. For instance, producing one kilogram of beef requires 15,500 liters of water. Nestle, Coca Cola and others are openly discussing their efforts to reduce their water consumption, in preparation for a world with less water.

As a newcomer to the Water industry, I often hear mention of “Water Crisis” or “Global Water Scarcity”, as if the only missing element is water. Initially, I accepted this as an axiom, having grown up in Israel, an arid country. However, as a technology entrepreneur, and having had the opportunity to define a new sector in the water industry, I can say that the water sector is facing an altogether different scarcity. It is not about lack of water; it is about lack of Innovation.