Clarity water management app may be key in fighting Legionella.

A new online application currently being rolled out to its clients by water treatment company, HydroChem presents real-time field data in visualisations so users can quickly view and understand vast amounts of asset water health information at a glance. Its innovative distillation of big data may well be a world first in the battle to control Legionella outbreaks.

With Clarity, decision makers can now quickly see trends in their data sets through standardised line graphs, and algorithms designed to provide a time-saving overview of water health. Using this technology, Australian facility managers can drill down into charts, graphs and reports for more detail, interactively changing what data they see.

HydroChem invested in this application to save their clients time when dealing with multiple reports while providing a complete 360 degree portfolio view.

Legionella outbreaks are a growing concern around the world, with 20+ cases of Legionnaires’ disease affecting Sydney, NSW earlier this year alone. Legionnaires’ disease is contracted when a person inhales aerosols containing Legionella bacteria, usually from cooling towers and other unchecked water sources. For the elderly, smokers and people with compromised immune systems, it can be fatal.

Outbreaks such as those witnessed in Sydney are entirely preventable with the right water management and treatment. With the new Clarity application, facility managers are able to view their water data at a glance, including Legionella colonisation, and treat those facilities that are falling below recommended health standards.

In the case of a suspected legionella outbreak that has been associated with a suburb or region, Clarity users can produce compliance documentation to health officials with just a few clicks, reassuring authorities their facilities are not the source of infection. In the past, this process has taken many hours and has hindered the ability of health officials to quickly isolate and resolve the outbreak.

“Clarity gives our clients full visibility over the health of their assets,” said Nick Duncan, CEO of HydroChem. “In the past, asset owners have relied on service reports for snapshot views of the current status of their systems. For the first time, Clarity will give them the ability to view the health of their assets based on trends over their chosen time scale and focus on specific aspects”.

For Clarity’s design and development, HydroChem partnered with Indietech, a Melbourne design and marketing agency with a focus on technology.

“Clarity was a dream project for our team,” said Indietech director, Ben Dexter. “It’s a world-first technology in this space, and has the ability to provide a larger understanding of water health data nationally. Clarity combines big ideas, innovation and technical data into a simply understood dashboard. The journey of how a PH test can travel through to a consolidated dashboard is simply amazing, and what big data is all about.”

Facility managers interested in more information about Clarity are urged to contact HydroChem on 1300 558 788 or visit the website for their state’s head office.