Credit: MinDigital

On Thursday 22 April 2021, the municipality of Useldange, the Ardennes water distribution union (Syndicat de distribution d'eau des Ardennes - DEA) and POST presented the digital projects undertaken in Useldange to Luxembourg's Minister Delegate for Digitalisation, Marc Hansen.

The meeting, which took place via videoconference, brought together Minister Delegate Marc Hansen, the Mayor of Useldange, Pollo Bodem, and members of the alderman college of Useldange, as well as representatives of the DEA union and POST Technologies. The meeting focused on the digital projects of the municipality of Useldange, which intends to position itself as a “smart Gemeng" (smart municipality).

The municipal administration has recently undertaken to replace the water metres in households of the municipality, which is located in western Luxembourg, with “smart” metres which capture several parameters such as water quality, temperature, pressure and consumption. Remotely readable in real time, these new counters are expected to allow easy, secure and centralised data management. Residents will also be able to monitor their water consumption in real time on the municipality's website. This technological development responds to the desire of the alderman college to raise awareness among residents about their water consumption and thus contribute to the preservation of the environment.

The replacement of the metres is directly linked to a second project for which the municipality of Useldange is working in close collaboration with the DEA and POST. This project, entitled “5G Smart Water Eislek”, concerns the digitalisation and automation of infrastructures with the aim of ensuring more efficient water management through, for example, the networking of machines or the implementation of smart grids. POST provides connectivity through 5G and the municipality contributes to the project by collecting information on the water consumption of its inhabitants in real time. This is a question of developing an Internet of Things (IoT) system with 5G communication which consists of sensors and a web visualisation for data analysis. With the data collected, the three partners aim to reduce drinking water leaks, among other things.

Several other digitialisation projects in the municipality were also discussed, including that of “smart parking”, making it possible to report in real time the parking spaces available on the territory of the municipality or a project concerning the display on the public road of information concerning mobility.

The Minister Delegate for Digitalisation welcomed the efforts invested in the digital transformation of the municipality. He also recalled that digitalisation only makes sense if it brings added value to the public: “The projects of the municipality of Useldange are part of this logic. I congratulate the municipal officials for the projects undertaken and I am delighted to see that the digital transformation is taking shape here, at a local level, as close as possible to the citizens”.