Rubicon Water client Valle de Banderas in Nayarit state, Mexico, has begun the first phase of its modernization journey by implementing a Site Management solution.
The solution consists of the installation of 10 remotely managed FlumeGates, replacing manual gates at five structures along the beginning of the area’s main canal. This first stage will be complete once a server running SCADAConnect™ software has been installed in the irrigation district office. The software will be used to remotely control the FlumeGates and a pump station.
The district is looking to improve distribution efficiency and reduce electricity costs by implementing the solution. Water is pumped from the El Como pump station into the canal, incurring high electricity costs. With much of that that water lost before it reaches the farm, the district is effectively paying to pump water it doesn’t use.
The irrigation area served by the canal covers an area of 7,000 acres and supplies 809 users.
Two more stages of modernisation along the canal are planned and, in the long-term, the client would like to operate the canal using a Network Control solution.
According to Alfonso Osuna, Director General of Rubicon Water Mexican distributor Nortech Water Specialties “It’s just the beginning of the big vision that we have with Rubicon to improve the irrigation infrastructure in Mexico. This project will be the showcase for bigger projects to come.”
For Mexico, this project means the introduction of a technology that can transform the traditional thinking about water supply and distribution and a time when it has ambitious plans to become self-sufficient in crop and food production for its population of over 116 million.
