Monitoring water safety at SAIL Amsterdam 2025
MTD is a global leader in temporary water infrastructures for events, exhibition spaces, and industrial environments. Their work demands flawless water quality and reliability, often delivered under tough conditions and within complex, temporary setups.
Events like SAIL Amsterdam require large, distributed pipe networks to transport drinking water across the sites. Summer temperatures, fluctuating usage, and long stretches of exposed piping can cause water sitting in pipes to warm up. If temperature rises too high, water quality can be affected. Traditionally, teams rely on local checks, manual flushing, and on-site expertise to maintain safe conditions.
This made SAIL Amsterdam an ideal environment to pilot a more unified approach to operational visibility and proactive control.
From fragmented observations to centralised operational intelligence
The goal of Capgemini was to assist MTD in transitioning from local, manual monitoring to centralised operational intelligence—a single platform where operational teams can access a comprehensive, real-time overview of water temperature trends throughout the distribution network. Additionally, smart controls are in place to automatically flush the system if temperatures rise too high.
To achieve this, we brought together:
- Capgemini as the systems integrator
- Blockbax for real-time insights, alarm management, and visualisation
- The Things Industries for robust, large-area connectivity
- MTD for operational expertise and water infrastructure leadership
Instead of teams relying on multiple tools, isolated readings, or manual procedures, the pilot focused on giving them one operational vantage point, where context, trends, alerts, and actions come together.
Key requirements included:
- Wide-area, low-maintenance connectivity suitable for temporary environments
- Battery-friendly sensors able to operate across long stretches of pipework
- A single platform to interpret data, highlight risks, and support decisions
- A mechanism to act proactively when temperature thresholds were exceeded
Collaboration that unlocked clarity
To bring structure to the data and deliver meaningful operational intelligence:
- MTD fitted their existing systems with additional sensors and valves that could be operated remotely.
- The Things Industries ensured seamless long-range connectivity.
- Blockbax transformed raw temperature readings into actionable insights, with intelligent thresholds and automatic controls.
- Capgemini integrated all elements into one coherent operational layer that gave MTD’s team a unified view across the entire temporary water network.
Together, this created the foundation for more proactive and informed decision-making.
Results: a strong step toward data-driven water safety
During SAIL Amsterdam 2025, water temperatures were successfully tracked across the full event area, offering MTD visibility into real-time conditions. The pilot also tested automated flushing at two locations, demonstrating how targeted interventions can be triggered at the right time and place.
The outcome showed how a centralised operational intelligence layer helps:
- Reduce reliance on manual checks
- Preserve and scale expert knowledge
- Detect temperature rises early
- Provide consistent, site-wide situational awareness
- Support proactive flushing to protect water quality
This pilot now serves as a foundation for future deployments and further innovation around temporary water safety.
The road ahead
As water infrastructures become more distributed and operational teams face growing pressures, centralised operational intelligence will play a crucial role in maintaining reliability, efficiency and safety, especially in challenging, high-activity environments like temporary events.
Capgemini, together with MTD, Blockbax, and The Things Industries, will continue refining this approach to support safer, smarter, and more resilient water operations at future events.
How Capgemini, MTD, Blockbax and The Things Industries piloted a smart water monitoring solution to safeguard temporary water infrastructure at Europe’s largest free event.
Every five years, SAIL Amsterdam transforms the city’s waterfront into a world-class maritime festival, attracting millions of visitors and hundreds of tall ships. For the 2025 edition, Capgemini joined as a sponsor and technology partner, collaborating with MTD, experts in temporary water infrastructure, to explore how a more centralised, intelligence-driven approach could support water safety at an event of this scale.
Project goal: Increase insight and actively protect water safety for the Sail 2025 temporary water infrastructure.
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