Nearly 65 million Europeans live in countries with critically endangered waters. Against the backdrop of climate change, water in Europe is becoming a priceless and already scarce resource, and the shortage is likely to worsen in the next 25 years. Or at least so suggest the European Commission's forecasts, whose 2023 report with the proposal for a Blue Deal indicates that the EU loses 36 billion euros each year from leaks in its water supply systems.
The situation in Bulgaria is especially dire. According to data from the Bulgarian Water Association (BAW) and the World Bank, Bulgaria is the leader in the EU in water losses in the depreciated network, with an average of over 60%, and in places reaching as much as 90%. Monetary losses due to leaks reach 275 million levs.
And while Europe negotiates the possible framework of the future centralized water deal, the private sector is directing funds and efforts towards innovative technological solutions that companies in the sector can use to reduce their losses. Several of them happen to be Bulgarian.
Naiada's smart leak detector
In 2021, Bilyana Nikolova used satellite imagery to identify leaks in Sofiyska Voda's systems (the capital's main water provider), and managed to reduce the company's losses by as much as 1.5 million cubic meters per year. However, the successful pilot project was not adapted to work with other enterprises and effectively ended.
Some time later Nikolova met Petar Tomov and Andreas Schulz, who had enthusiasm and solid experience in the field of artificial intelligence. Together, they shared the common cause of reducing water losses, as well as the opportunity to develop a large-scale technological solution. So in 2023, the three of them became partners in a new venture based on artificial intelligence that detects anomalies that signal leaks and improves the work of water supply companies. They called it Naiada (inspired by the deities in ancient Greek mythology who are guardians of water).
"Satellites provide bird's-eye data, covering large areas of land in a single image. These images can reveal subtle changes in the environment that indicate the existence of leaks even in remote places," explains Nikolova regarding the usefulness of satellite images in anomaly detection. "However, the huge amount of data from satellites and the complexity of interpreting consecutive images make manual analysis impractical," she adds.
Naiada.ai relies on artificial intelligence, whose machine learning algorithms detect anomalies that signal the presence of a leak. According to the Naiada team, the solution could reduce water companies' costs for leak detection by about 30%.
The model is the work of the company's founders, who have been financing it with personal funds so far. "We also received support from Google, which provided us with the infrastructure necessary for the calculations related to the development and training of the models," Nikolova says.
According to her, the model has been adapted to be flexible and easily integrated into different infrastructures. Nikolova and Tomov are based in Sofia, while their partner Schulz, with whom they share an equal share in the Naiada company, works from Berlin.
The company is partnering with the Bulgarian Water Association (BAV) and is already serving clients - some of the water supply companies in the country. "A larger-scale application of our model at a national, institutional level would lead to significantly better and faster results in the country. Unfortunately, at this stage this is not possible in Bulgaria," explains Nikolova. However, the results are there, albeit on a smaller scale than desired by Naiada.
The next steps for Naiada are the further development of its platform and the search for financing for the development of the project. "The solution has the potential to become a global innovation when the required precision and the necessary financing are achieved," Nikolova says. The team plans to continue developing partnerships in Europe and seek additional funding to expand its team and make the technology even more accessible and effective.
Cleaner water
All water supply companies are obliged to monitor water quality. Existing monitoring methods, however, take days and often prove ineffective in timely identification of the problem. "In some cases, the analysis takes up to 5 days to obtain a result. By which time the water has long expired," commented Dr. Hussein Yemendzhiev, who teamed up with Prof. Valentin Nenov to create a digital solution with a biosensor for instant analysis of water composition called ENova H20.
"We aim to change the standard approach through the sensors and biosensors we have developed, capable of detecting organic pollutants in water in 5 seconds instead of 5 days," says Dr. Yemendzhiev. The two researchers looked for a partner to implement their idea, and when they ended up not finding one, they decided to take on the development of an effective and fast analysis method themselves. They founded their company at the end of 2017 with their participation in the European accelerator program EIT Climate KIC.
ENova H20 monitoring devices include a sensor, a hardware controller and a mobile terminal with software for visualization and data analysis. "All this is in a compact portable form with a number of integrated Smart functions such as GPS labeling of each measurement with the date and time of measurement, as well as easy integration with IoT, GIS and SCADA platforms," the company explains.
The design of the device allows water parameters to be measured by anyone, "whenever and wherever necessary, without the need for transportation to a specialized laboratory," says Dr. Yemandzhiev, adding that, depending on the client's needs, entire stationary monitoring stations can be built at different locations, powered by solar panels and completely autonomously.
ENova's products are aimed at clients who operate infrastructure throughout the water cycle - from water sources to wastewater treatment. After the initial support of the EIC in 2020, ENova won the Bulgarian Chivas Ventures social entrepreneurship competition and received an investment of 40,000 dollars to validate its product. It has been serving clients since 2021, who now include the water supply companies in Burgas and Targovishte, Lukoil Neftochim Burgas, research institutes and enterprises in the processing industry, among others. The business is now entirely supported by sales.
"Our team consists of 4 people, each with specific expertise, with which we cover our basic needs concerning operational and strategic management of the company, customer and target sector relations, hardware and software development, as well as laboratory activities," says Dr. Yemendzhiev, listing the portfolios.
The next goals of the two founders are to increase sales revenue and expand the team. "We plan to develop products and solutions for new sectors besides the one in which we are currently active, specifically urban water management and environmental monitoring," concludes Dr. Yemendzhiev.
Nearly 65 million Europeans live in countries with critically endangered waters. Against the backdrop of climate change, water in Europe is becoming a priceless and already scarce resource, and the shortage is likely to worsen in the next 25 years. Or at least so suggest the European Commission's forecasts, whose 2023 report with the proposal for a Blue Deal indicates that the EU loses 36 billion euros each year from leaks in its water supply systems.
The situation in Bulgaria is especially dire. According to data from the Bulgarian Water Association (BAW) and the World Bank, Bulgaria is the leader in the EU in water losses in the depreciated network, with an average of over 60%, and in places reaching as much as 90%. Monetary losses due to leaks reach 275 million levs.