[achow]

Well not really. I stay in a place where water drought is a looming dark cloud on the horizon, so from that perspective..

1. Affordable device that harvests water from air

Water wastage is a huge problem, so..

2. IoT devices that detects leakages in main pipes

3. IoT water meters for individual apartments in housing societies. One of the major problem is water is not metered per households in large apartments, so there is very less incentive to repair leakages (flush etc.) or use water carefully the same way as metered electricity.

4. Rain water harvesting

5. Home water purifier

I maybe missing many more obvious ones but sure there would be many more if one gives this problem space deeper thought.

[ElBarto]

Not everything can be solved by IoT/AI/blockchain...

[achow]

Inclusion of the term "IoT" was deliberate, monitoring water (distribution, use, misuse, quality) remotely and at a scale precisely is the problem that IoT can solve.

[ForHackernews]

There's no "IoT" problem here. You can have plenty of automated systems monitoring your infrastructure without the security nightmare of making them accessible on the public internet.

[trashcan]

I don't think that IoT implies publicly accessible (correct me if I'm wrong). "IoT" smart water meters exist, and they usually use cellphone networks to send data (water usage) to the utility company.

[ForHackernews]

The "I" in "IoT" stands for "internet". If the only thing "IoT" means is 'small digital sensors', then I'd suggest it's a meaningless buzzword.

[achow]

The Internet of things (IoT) is the network of devices such as vehicles, and home appliances that contain electronics, software, sensors, actuators, and connectivity which allows these things to connect, interact and exchange data.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_of_things

[cr1895]

>4. Rain water harvesting

Is there a risk of significantly altering the local water cycle if everyone is doing this? Same with extracting moisture from air, I suppose.

[trashcan]

> 2. IoT devices that detects leakages in main pipes

I used to work for a company that does this: http://gwfathom.com/

They replace traditional water meters with smart meters and then provide software tooling around monitoring and managing them.