Development of an Autonomous Remote Access Water Quality Monitoring System

Abstract

Due to the vast increase in global industrial output, rural to urban drift and the over-utilization of land and sea resources, the quality of water available to people has deteriorated greatly. Before the sensor based approach to water quality monitoring, water quality was tested by collecting the samples of water and experimentally analyzing it in the laboratories. However, in today, with time being a scarce resource, the traditional method of water quality testing is not efficient anymore. To tackle this issue, several electronic (microcontroller and sensor based) water quality monitoring systems were developed in the past decade. However, an in depth study of this current water quality testing technology shows that there are some limitations that should be taken into consideration. Therefore, an automatic, remote, and low cost water quality monitoring system has been developed. This system consists of a core microcontroller, multiple sensors, GSM module, LCD display screen, and an alarm subsystem. The quality of water is read from the physical world through the water quality testing sensors and sent to the microcontroller. The data is then analyzed by the microcontroller and the result is displayed on the LCD screen on the device. At the same time, another copy of the sensor readings is sent remotely to the user’s mobile phone in the form of SMS. If an abnormal water quality parameter is detected by any sensor, the alarm system will turn on the respective red LED for that parameter and the buzzer will give warning sound. At the same time, the abnormality of the water parameter is reported to the user through SMS. The system is aimed to be used for wide applications and by all categories of users. It can facilitate the process of water quality monitoring autonomously and with low cost; to help people improve their quality of drinking water, household water supplies and aquaculture farms, especially in rural areas where residents do not have access to standardized water supply and suffer from different diseases caused by contaminated water.