Water industry needs smart tech
HCM City (VNS/VNA) - Vietnam needs to work on implementing modern IT systems and high quality workforce training in the water supply and drainage industries in preparation for the Fourth Industrial Revolution, experts said at a conference in HCM City on November 8.
Mai Thi Lien Huong of the Ministry of Construction said Vietnam’s water supply
and drainage industry had been applying hi-tech methods and IT. However, it was
facing problems such as limited funding, climate change and pollution.
Investing into smart systems for managing water distribution is crucial for
sustainable development of water industries.
Nguyen Viet Anh, Director of the Institute of Environment Science and
Engineering, said that Industry 4.0 technologies like cloud computing, 3D
printing, AI and the Internet of Things can be used alongside data collection
and processing in water supply and drainage systems. Smart equipment such as
smart valves, digital data loggers and equipment to detect leakage can also be
implemented.
Vietnam’s production capability for smart water management products is still
limited. Smart systems require a large amount of data, which can be difficult
to gather and manage.
Supervisory control and data acquisition systems need to be upgraded for better
data gathering and water network management. Database and customer service
should move away from manual paperwork and be more digitised.
Vietnam should work towards smart water supply and drainage systems to enable
efficient management of water quality and volume, weather forecasts and problem
detection.
Ung Quoc Dung, Vice Chairman of the Vietnam Water Supply and Sewerage
Association, said that, despite the fact that many firms in the country were
still using low-tech systems, the implementation of 4.0 technology would impose
massive changes on the Vietnamese job market. Low skilled jobs would be
replaced by high skilled employees needed to run smart systems.
Firms will also have to train and hire more suitable workers and invest more in
modern IT systems.
“In the future, the intelligence and talent of the workers will be the most important
factor for production, so preparing a high quality workforce is essential,” Dung
said.
The education system and human resource training have to be revamped to produce
workers that have the skills and creativity needed for Industry 4.0.
Many skilled workers are grouped in HCM City and Hanoi, while more are needed
in the Central Highlands and Mekong Delta.
Dung said that to prepare for Industry 4.0, the workforce – especially in the
drainage and wastewater industries, which are relatively new in Vietnam– needs
to improve on foreign languages, IT capability, teamwork, communication and
other skills.
The conference was a part of VIETWATER 2018, an international exhibition for
technologies and systems in water industries.-VNS/VNA