Comparing digitalization of urban water processes and services in Singapore and Bengaluru

Digitalization is claimed to revolutionize water utilities in many urban areas across the world, contributing to urban water security.  It involves the use of Information Technology, Data Analysis and Electronic Monitoring in urban water governance with significant improvements in quality water services and customer satisfaction. However, a holistic success story where digitalization of each and every urban water process and service, is found only in a handful of cities. The challenge in most cases is not the availability of an appropriate digital technology but the implementation of the technology. In our study, we try to find the constraints faced in the implementation processes by assessing the required enabling conditions of digitalization as well as the outcomes. Two cities, Singapore and Bengaluru as case studies were selected to compare the implementation process of Smart Water Meters, Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) and Flood Early Warning. Singapore is a developed city in terms of water with an excellent water management system that provides remarkable water-related services. On the other hand, Bengaluru, a rapidly growing city in India and known for its information technology and digital industry, has embarked on the path towards digitalization in water. The comparison of the implementation of these three technologies provides interesting insights that we have extended to generalized inferences about the implementation of digitalization in urban water. We have found that the enabling conditions such as the existence of enabling technologies, management capacity and conducive policy framework are crucial for implementation. Interestingly, outlining the target problems that digitalization is expected to address is equally important for achieving favourable outcomes. The inferences developed in this study will help the adoption of digital technology by urban water utilities, especially in the developing world and in turn strengthen water security.