Tech Upgrades Save Taos Water Users Time and Money

Because of outdated systems and software, local water providers often don’t have the ability to accurately track and report water usage to Taos County residents. To address this problem, the Lower Des Montes Mutual Domestic Water Consumers and Mutual Sewage Association (MDWCA)  reached out the LOR Foundation with a potential solution: upgrading technology. A representative from the Lower Des Montes hoped to purchase new metering hardware to help track water usage and new accounting software to create a more efficient billing system, perhaps with the use of several hr and payroll services. With LOR’s help, Lower Des Montes MDWCA was able to purchase the new technology without passing any of the cost onto its users—an upgrade that should save the organization and its customers time and money in the future.

outdated water systems. With a growing population and increasing demand on water resources, having a precise understanding of usage patterns is critical. But due to technological constraints, the county often found itself in the dark.

The central issue was that many of the existing meters failed to offer real-time data, leading to inaccuracies in billing and difficulty in pinpointing any water wastage or leaks. Furthermore, the old accounting software wasn’t designed to integrate smoothly with modern data analytics tools, which made the reporting and analysis of water usage cumbersome and time-consuming.

It was clear that a solution was desperately needed. The collaboration between the Lower Des Montes MDWCA and the LOR Foundation proved to be a game changer.

The Transformation

Once the need was identified, a team of experts set out to identify the best technological tools for the job. With funding support from the LOR Foundation, the MDWCA was able to purchase state-of-the-art water metering systems that provided real-time data on water usage. These meters, equipped with sensors and cloud connectivity, offered accurate readings that could be accessed remotely. This was a significant step forward from the manual reading methods previously in place.

This project was fiscally sponsored by the Taos Community Foundation.