A ceremony held on March 22 marked both this year's World Water Day and the launch of the OpenHarmony-based water management project covering the entire Dasha River basin in Nanshan District.

Working with the Shenzhen Water and Environment Group, the Nanshan Water Authority aims to deploy OpenHarmony and AI technologies to enable smart management of all water facilities within the Dasha River basin.

OpenHarmony is an open-source, distributed operating system designed for the Internet of Things (IoT) era, built on a "one system for all devices" philosophy. Initiated by Huawei, it is designed to run on a wide range of hardware and serves as the open-source counterpart to Huawei's commercial HarmonyOS, which is commonly used on consumer devices such as smartphones and tablets.

Once completed, the smart water management system will enable real-time monitoring and coordination of all facilities, support emergency prediction, and optimize decision-making.

By ensuring that reservoirs, water plants, pipe networks, gates, and pump stations operate within a unified system, the AI-powered project will manage water supply, sewage purification, and emergency flood drainage more efficiently. Emergency response times will be reduced from hours to minutes.

In January, the nation's first basin-level OpenHarmony-based intelligent sluice station was put into operation on the Dasha River, marking the first step in the deployment of the system.

According to a representative from the Nanshan Water Authority, inspections of pump stations and sluice stations in the past required repeated manual trips, making it impossible to monitor equipment in real time. With the OpenHarmony system now connecting all equipment to a central control platform, engineers can remotely monitor and ensure normal operation. Leveraging AI algorithms, the system can further predict equipment failures one to two weeks in advance, shifting from a reactive approach to proactive maintenance.

On the same day, nearly 30 technology companies showcased their OpenHarmony-based water management solutions, including smart boats, robots, and inspection drones capable of replacing manual labor in inspection and maintenance tasks.

Meanwhile, an interactive experience area was set up to educate citizens on water conservation and provide them with a glimpse into smart water management.

The Dasha River, once black and odorous, has turned clear after years of treatment, and its banks have become a popular destination for citizens to stroll and relax. It has been recognized as one of Guangdong Province's 10 most beautiful rivers and lakes.

Nanshan District began building its smart water management system as early as 2020, and has since earned various accolades from provincial and national authorities.