Drink Me: Addressing Water Shortages with IoT Technology

California is in the grip of the worst drought in more than a millennium, according to reports, and the water shortage doesn’t seem to be letting go of its stranglehold any time soon. Coming to the rescue, however, are several IoT developers looking to roll out solutions that will help residents save water and aid ecosystem recovery.

Half of all the water used outdoors is wasted, according to smart irrigation company ETwater, and that kind of waste is unconscionable in these drought conditions. “We have a 13 to 14 trillion gallon water deficiency in California,” said Lee Williams, COO, ETwater. “We can use IoT technology to help consumers save water and money. If everyone in California was using a smart system like ours, we’d be nearly sustainable today.”

ETwater’s smart system is dynamic, based upon weather forecasting, rainfall amounts and what kinds of plants are being irrigated. The system is driven by weather data, and not environmental sensors, and it seeks to replace and upgrade traditional, and inefficient, timer setups.

Mist is a smart sprinkler controller that does use wireless moisture sensors, which measure soil moisture, rainfall amounts and ambient temperature in the customer’s yard. To address water shortages, Mist has introduced a “Drought Mode.” This special setting leverages the sensor system and trend forecasting to supply just enough water to keep a lawn’s roots alive, but dormant, much like what happens naturally in winter.

“We’re measuring while we’re watering so we can get a really high precision in how much water to use,” said Matt Kresse, co-founder, Mist. “It seems like a no-brainer that we have to address the California drought now, and this is how we can help.”

Over in the wearables aisle, Israeli company GreenIQ has created a tool for the Apple Watch that will allow users to activate sprinklers and turn on landscape lighting with one tap of a button. Using the GreenIQ Smart Garden Hub app, customers on iOS or Android can create their own commands and personalized buttons using GreenIQ Recipes on IFTTT to control entire home irrigation and outdoor automation systems.

“Our mission is to make gardens smarter and allow people to feel more connected to their gardens,” said Odi Dahan, founder and CEO, GreenIQ. “We teamed up with IFTTT to launch a dedicated connected garden channel to close the gap between garden and home automation, while allowing our customers to be in greater control of their connected domains.”

No matter the reason, the goal is to help people, and companies, use less water. And the IoT might be the best way to do that. Let’s hope it gets done before it’s too late.