Weyburn is one of the first communities in Canada to receive a new cell phone technology based water meter.

Weyburn Residents will be receiving phone calls over the next few weeks to book installation times. Installations will also be available to book online.

The water meter comes with an app which gives Weyburn residents access to the exact same information the city will receive.

Eye On Water application is available on smartphones and will provide alarms to residents in the event of a leak.

"That application is really advanced technology in the market, not many people in Western Canada or Canada for that matter have an application such as this. The data will be collected daily by the City of Weyburn and that data will ultimately turn into a billing system for the City of Weyburn," said Trent Langford, Regional Sales Manager, Corix Water Products.

"From a consumer perspective though, this application allows them to have an impact on how much they spend on water and monitoring their water usage," added Langford.

The app is now downloadable and includes a demo so residents can see what it will look like.

There will be no extra cost to Weyburn residents as the City of Weyburn is receiving federal and provincial funding

The Federal Government is providing up to $2.7 million and $1.3 million is being provided by the Government of Saskatchewan.

The City will fund the remaining with the total eligible cost of the project is expected to total up to $5.4 million.

"These water meters that we are receiving, can detect the smallest leak. They will be able to detect a dripping tap, and with this, they become far more accurate. So a lot of the residents may look at their water bills in the future and think we have raised the water rates. We are not raising the water rates but what these meters are doing is they are measuring properly and accurately what your water usage is," said Mayor Marcel Roy.

"We put out an RFP to receive proposals from potential water meter suppliers and installers and then the top three proposals were selected to give presentations to the city. Several city staff as well as walker projects sat in on the presentations and made the decision about the awarded water meter supplier," explained Laura Delanoy, Assistant Engineer for the City of Weyburn.

Corix Water Products are looking for Weyburn installers. It is their mandate to use local installers.

"We could still use a few more resumes to sift through to find good candidates to come in and work in the area for a few months to install the local meters. Plumbers and people with a trade background, a water background would be fantastic," said Langford.

It is expected for the complete installation of the water meters to be March 31st, 2018.

Water meter

Close up of the new water meter, courtesy of James Brackpool.