Is there a valve on the street they pull or is it something like a button they press at their headquarters? (in the US)
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Water meter equipment usually has a shutoff valve along the piping, so that water can be disconnected in an emergency or for non payment.
There’s a water main in the street in front of your house. Coming off of that water main is a small pipe (probably 1″ diameter) that comes to your property. It has a tiny valve where it meets the main, which is called a main stop. When the pipe comes to your property line, there’s a little box with a plastic or metal lid. That box has your water meter, your backflow preventer, and a valve called a curb stop.
If you stop paying your bill, the utility can come and close the curb stop. Usually the curb stop is designed so that they can put a padlock through it, to prevent you from re-opening the valve.
In general, there’s a valve near the water meter and the water company can close that valve. It often has a lock for it, so if the water is being cut off for something like non-payment the homeowner can’t simply turn it back on.
In theory this could be electronic and they could remotely close it. I’m not sure how common that is. I haven’t lived in a place that does that yet but the technology isn’t particularly sophisticated so I’m sure some utilities use it.
Generally there is a valve between the street line and your house service line. They have to manually come out, open an access panel, turn the valve off, then lock it. I am not sure if anyone has installed any automatic valves, but even then, they would have to drive out to electronically control it. There would be no HQ function unless each individual meter is wired to HQ or connected to some sort of network.
There is a valve located next to the meter by the street. It is at that location that water is turned on or off for a single service user.
The valve uses a specialized wrench.
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Between your house and the main line, there is a valve that can be turned on/off. It requires a special tool. It is a simple water key, however your valve can be up to 6 feet below the sidewalk. In the USA, in most States, a home cannot be sold with an existing water bill.
In the northern tier of states where I live, there is a valve under a metal cover between the street and the residence. Under that is a shut off valve. It is several feet down for frost protection. The water meter is inside the house somewhere, usually in the basement or a utility room. These days the meter is read electronically so that they don’t have to come into your basement to get their monthly reading. There are shut off valves on either side of the meter, to allow them to swap meters easily, and allow you to shut of your water supply when you are working on your own plumbing. The water utility will be responsible for the pipes up to their valve. You are responsible for the pipes from the valve to your house.
They have been replacing old lead water pipes into houses in our area.
A few different ways they can cut it off. First off rhe water starts at a well/treatment plant. Turn the pumps off and only the residual pressure resides until that’s gone and everyone is out of water.
From the main feed is a network of pipes usually looped when possible. These loops can be closed/isolated to allow work to take place without shutting others off ler se. This network is the water mains. In similar fashion of the pumps they can close gates (shutoffs) that would isolate larger sections (think whole streets or long portions 1000ft).
Then from the mains is the water service. You have a shutoff at the tap into the main called a corporation. This can he shutoff but it had to be dug up. From the corp running to your house is the service pipe. Some towns city’s install a curb box and a curb stop (inclined valve) at the city/your property line. Usually the city owns everything in the street up to the curb stop and you personally own the pipe from the curb to your house/internal water meter.
So if you wanted to shut off everyone’s water…kill the main feed. Just the neighborhood kill the gate valves on that loop. Kill just your water if you don’t pay the bill shutoff rhe curbstop…water is spewing inside the house shutoff at the meter.
There’s a valve on the parkway and they will turn the water off there. If you are in an apartment they likely can’t. All that said, it’s not too hard to turn water back on/
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