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IoT Based Real-time Water

Quality Monitoring System

Ms. Sujaya Dasgupta*

Email: sujaya.dasgupta@gmail.com

W
ater - Every drop is precious, save
it.Conservation of water remains
one of the most solicited needs
in today’s world. There are several public
addresses, debates, television shows,
lectures and workshops, hoardings creating
awareness, signifying and emphasizing the
necessity of water conservation. I have also
been reading a lot about water scarcity and
its impact on humans and animals in arid and
semi-arid areas. But it is said that the true
value of something is best understood when
it is experienced and assessed. Staying in
government quarters in the heart of Pune city
with my parents since childhood, enjoying
uninterrupted fairly good quality water supply
by Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) and 24
hours electricity, I never realized how privileged
we were to enjoy such facilities which are a big
challenge in rural India, where villagers have
to travel miles to fetch potable water. This
dawned on me when we had to shift from the
government-allotted quarters to our own house
in Lavale village. The village is situated in
Mulshi district appeared quite welcoming with
greenery all around, with acres of agricultural
land as farming is the main stay of the villagers.
The place was out of PMC bounds and private
bore-wells were the only source of potable
water. Unaware of the water quality, we relied
on our old ordinary water filter for a year until
one fine day a salesperson approached our
doorstep to demonstrate the need to have an
RO/UV filter. It was then when we found that the
total dissolved solids (TDS - one of the major
water quality parameters) of our tap water

* Ms. Sujaya Dasgupta, PhD Scholar from Fergusson College, Maharashtra, is pursuing her research on “Design and
Development of Wireless Sensor Nodes and Study of their Adaptibilities for Quality Monitoring of Water Reservoir”. Her
popular science story entitled “IoT Based Real-Time Water Quality Monitoring System” has been selected for AWSAR
Award.
332 || AWSAR Awarded Popular Science Stories - 2019

was much beyond the standard acceptable
limit and it startled us further when we found
the water electrolyzer was indicating muddy
water. Any ordinary filter was insufficient to
purify such heavily contaminated water. It was
scary to realize that we had been consuming
such polluted water for one full year without
realizing the consequences. I came across a
report by Water Aid which said: “India ranked
first among ten countries in the world for having
almost 163.1 million inhabitants deprived
of having access to home close safe water.
Around 37.7 million Indians were affected by
waterborne diseases annually.” That was quite
an eye opener. It made me curious to explore
more about water quality and its impact on
living beings and on the ecosystem.

When I met the villagers to record their accounting for the research activities carried
views on water pollution, they thinking that out in the past discussing the methodologies
I had come from a government office for and technologies implemented for water
inspection started complaining quality assessment. Being a
about the waste management, double master’s in electronics,
river pollution in the village by my inclination was more
chemical discharges from the towards the identification and
Around 37.7 million Indians
neighbouring liquor factories, comparison of the technologies
were affected by waterborne
pharmaceutical companies, commercially available and
diseases annually.” That was
manufacturing plants, and how widely implemented for the
quite an eye opener. It made me
their health was being affected water quality measurements. I
curious to explore more about
by several water-borne visited Central Water and Power
water quality and its impact
diseases post consuming Research Station (CWPRS),
on living beings and on the
unpurified river water. Pune, to gather knowledge on
ecosystem.
In the meantime, I received the laboratory testing methods
the Junior Research Fellowship and instruments they used for
award by UGC University Grants water quality measurements.
Commission) opening up the In their chemistry laboratory,
opportunity to pursue full-time research for me. I performed the water sample testing to
The turning point of my life was when I decided measure the major physico-chemical
to pursue research on water quality monitoring. parameters like electrical conductivity, pH,
I started, the first phase of my research salinity, dissolved oxygen, BOD, COD, ions
work, with a literature survey to understand like Mg2+, Ca2+, Na+, Cl−. I met the officials
sources and types of water pollution, and of the hydrology section at the Indian
pollution status at national and international Meteorological Department, Pune; Pune
levels. I read numerous research papers Municipal Corporation; and, Environmental
 Ms. Sujaya Dasgupta || 333

Science department of Pune University, to main objective of my proposed research

understand their water testing methods and work focused on developing a cost-effective
requirements. I collected water samples from wireless sensor node capable of meeting the
several upstream and downstream locations above requirements. The research would offer
on Mula, Mutha, and Pavana rivers in Pune, 12 a small leap towards providing safe water by
locations on Thane creek in Mumbai, Hooghly updating the authorities through a web-based
in Kolkata, and many other lakes. It was portal and mobile phone platforms regarding
then when I realized the difficulty in sample the contamination status so that preventive
collection and transportation for laboratory measures could be devised in time. The system
measurements and, hence the importance could be revised for sensing the suitability of
of using technology to be able to remotely water for various uses, like drinking, irrigation,
access and measure the quality parameters recreation. In the second phase of my research
of water bodies. After a discussion with the work, I worked intensively on the designing
officials of the various organizations I visited, of the necessary electronics circuits and
I understood that the commercial instruments performing pilot testing. The major blocks of
used by them for remote real-time monitoring my system consisted of the sensor assembly
of water bodies were very expensive and and their signal conditioning units, data logger
hence out of bounds for many. Seeking further unit for data acquisition and processing,
guidance to identify and frame my research wireless transmission via Wi-Fi and GSM
objectives, I arrived at the Environmental and modules. The entire system was powered with
Water Resources Engineering Department, a solar rechargeable battery. The major task
IIT Chennai with my research involved was suitable selection
proposal. The professors not of the sensors to monitor
only wholeheartedly approved quality parameters, designing
my research topic but also hardware of the embedded
Another issue worth noting
promised further support. With system and programming
was the accidental release of
all the encouragements and the microcontroller for data
hazardous chemicals and toxic
final discussion with my guides, acquisition and storage,
materials by the nearby factories
I registered myself a Ph.D, a learning to establish internet
into the river without any prior
long arduous journey. Another connectivity and cloud
warning. Such anomalies could
issue worth noting was the computing for data storage
pose a severe threat to life.
accidental release of hazardous in a remote cloud server
chemicals and toxic materials enabling online data transfer
by the nearby factories into the and analysis. The first version
river without any prior warning. of the system was designed,
Such anomalies could pose a severe threat to fabricated and assembled in-house. The entire
life. system was calibrated against the standard
In order to address the above issues and instruments at CWPRS. Several test cycles
to devise solutions under critical situations, I were performed and the system displayed
decided to design and build Internet of Things measurement results with great accuracy. The
(IoT) based system for real-time analyses of next step, and the most challenging part of
the various hydrological parameters of the river my research, was to test the set-up in the real
giving us a fair idea of the pollution, thereby field. Security of the instruments was a major
enabling us to report their quality status. The concern and seeking permission from the
334 || AWSAR Awarded Popular Science Stories - 2019
government officials to install the setup was
truly cumbersome. Moreover, the difficulties
increased, being a woman, I was denied
permission to perform the test alone on the
lakes and river banks for security reasons.
With much effort and on Pune University’s
recommendation, I received permission letters,
for a limited period, from the PMC officials to
continue my research in several lakes and
boat clubs. The downstream locations of rivers
in the main city of Pune were heavily polluted
owing to the disposal of municipal wastes
like plastic and rubber, industrial effluents,
daily trash, food waste, festive flowers, and
other anthropogenic activities into the river.
The study was conducted for several days
and real-time data from various water bodies
was successfully uploaded on a remote cloud
server and analyzed. I used Matlab software
for data analysis and designed a graphical
user interface (GUI) for data presentation,
Classification Learner application to classify
the water resources into various categories
based on their water quality index values. The
work has been already published in various
international journals of Springer, Acta Press
and IGI Global. The first version of my system
was a bit heavy and with limited memory. Both
of these aspects have been taken care of in
the second version. The development of the
next version is underway which is compact
with enhanced processing capabilities,
more memory, and more advanced data
transmission capabilities. Such a developed
system will definitely benefit the rural population
in terms of creating awareness about water
quality, reducing pollution levels by bringing
to the notice the quality status of water to
the concerned authorities and stakeholders,
thereby issuing early warning, preventing the
damage caused due to accidental leakages
of hazardous chemicals at a moderate cost
and with good accuracy.