As people wash their hands with soap for a minimum of 20 seconds at frequent intervals through the day and disinfect their homes at least once in 2-3 days, the average water consumption is up by about 1.5 times. This lends the need for water conservation and management greater significance.

Chennai-based water management start-up WEGoT has come up with an ultrasonic sensor-based IoT device and software platform that helps to reduce the demand for water by more than 50 per cent.

These sensors, which are installed in water inlet points in individual apartments, track usage and notify users of water leakages in real time so that they can shut down supply remotely with just the click of a button. The software further tracks water usage patterns, which keeps facilities managers and building management associations informed in real time about the quantity of water stored in the overhead tanks, leakages, abnormal consumption and inefficient infrastructure.

Since traditional water meters from mechanical companies are turbine-based solutions that cannot detect air passing through pipes and drop leakages, WEGoT also offers its proprietary tamper-proof water meters which facilitates accurate readings.

“A NITI Aayog water report states that 21 cities will run out of water by 2020 and that majority of the water resources in the country will run dry by 2030. Given that residential usage accounts for a large part of India’s water consumption, it needs to be conserved efficiently. We have leveraged technology to try and solve the water crisis and check instances of water theft, leakages and inlet water quality flow in over 30,000 houses across 12 major cities in India, as well as in 30 million sq ft of commercial properties,” said Abilash Haridass, co-founder and Chief of Growth & Strategy, WEGoT.

“We have helped customers save over three billion litres of water to date and are on track to save 10 billion litres of water by 2022,” he added.

WEGoT offers its solution on subscription, wherein it gives the product for free and users pay nominal monthly fees ranging from ₹149 to ₹349 per home, per month (residential) and 20 paise per sq ft (commercial) apart from one-time installation charges.

The start-up targets residential complexes and commercial buildings such as IT parks, industries, malls, hospitals etc. Some of its residential customers include Brigade, Appaswamy Real Estate and Casa Grande, and commercial customers include Infosys, Danfoss, Zoho and Ascendas.

Founded in 2015 by four young entrepreneurs who grew up in Chennai witnessing acute water shortages, WEGoT exited FY20 with a ₹7.5-crore revenue, a 100 per cent growth over the previous fiscal, and is targeting ₹15 crore this fiscal. “Covid tailwinds are working in our favour to accelerate growth for us this fiscal. Everyone is mindful of cutting down costs including cost of operations. We are seeing a huge surge of interest from industries for our solutions and are confident of doubling our revenue in FY21,” said Haridass.

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