This article appeared in Chile’s emol.com / El Mercurio in April 2021.
AQUA4D is a Swiss company with vast experience in this field and has developed innovative methods to achieve better water management, reducing water consumption by an average of 25%.
In the last decade Chile has faced a deepening water crisis as a result of climate change affecting the planet. This complex scenario has demanded from the authorities and society in general profound changes in habits to take care of this vital resource. In this context, the municipality of Lo Barnechea has implemented an innovative integral water efficiency project, the first in the country, which aims to better manage its water consumption – especially in the care of green areas.
For this purpose, the Santiago municipality partnered with the Swiss company AQUA4D, represented in Latin America by IST Group, which has vast experience in the integration of innovation and sustainable technology for the optimization of water use worldwide.
Optimized irrigation of green areas
The company is currently working with a leading French football team, OGC Nice, to efficiently manage the irrigation of all its fields, using advanced technology for this purpose, the same that will now be applied in the municipalityl. “It used to take two and a half hours to irrigate a soccer field in the professional complex. By installing AQUA4D®, we were able to reduce irrigation times by 20% to 30%, which allows us to generate a water efficiency of around 25%”, explained Scott Brooks, Head Groundsman at OGC Nice.
Felipe Villarino, CEO and founder of IST Group, valued the agreement reached with the municipality of Lo Barnechea to advance the care of water resources: “We are committed to the efficiency and optimization of all processes that use water resources, impacting various industries,” said the executive, who added that they work hand in hand with leading foundations such as Water is Life to bring this vital element to the neediest communities.
The alliance between the Santiago municipality and the European firm makes even more sense considering international studies that indicate that the irrigation of parks and green areas represents, on average, half of the water consumption of cities, a factor to be taken into consideration when water scarcity is already taking on the character of a “mega-drought” after a total of 10 years in Chile. “Water managers in cities are now quite aware that outdoor landscape irrigation accounts for half of water use, if not more. So in a water shortage situation, one of the first things to focus on is water use and management in irrigation of lawns, gardens, and general landscaping,” says Brian Richter, a professor at the University of Virginia and president of SustainableWaters.org.
Decreasing consumption and irrigation times
Another project being carried out in the Lo Barnechea commune can be seen in the so-called Boulevard de Los Pájaros, which is in charge of the company Ecogreen, which is responsible for the maintenance of green areas and for which they also decided to incorporate state-of-the-art technology in order to achieve optimized irrigation.
“Thanks to the ‘Water Awareness’ program, we have been able to reduce water consumption by 20% in this sector. Our challenge is to continue incorporating this technology and the service in our green areas to reduce water consumption, generate water awareness in our suppliers, collaborators and, most importantly, in our neighbors, since 78% of drinking water consumption in the urban area of Lo Barnechea is domestic”, said Victoria Álamos, director of Environment, Cleaning and Ornamentation of the municipality. Along these lines, Lo Barnechea has already implemented a series of actions aimed at taking care of the vital element, such as watering green areas between 22:00 and 08:00 hrs, adjusting irrigation times according to the crop, permanently supervising irrigation in the field to avoid water losses and automating 100% of the green areas that have water feasibility, among several others.
Chile
Landscapes
Urban Greening
IST Group technicians consulting in Lo Barnechea
AQUA4D football irrigation in Nice, France