Development of an internet of things based customer water-meter reading system at Arusha city

Abstract

Water management is a fundamental factor that helps to make sure that water is available and well utilized. Meter reading process is required by Arusha Urban Water Supply and Sanitation Authority (AUWSA) so as to be able to bill the clients according to their water usage. Currently, the process of meter reading is manual which require at the end of each month, meter reading officials from AUWSA have to read all the meters in Arusha, the process which cost AUWSA time and financial resources. The objective of this project was therefore, to develop an IoT based customer water meter system where meter readings can be automated and the readings sent to the cloud. The AUWSA then receives the readings on a weekly basis and can continue with reading verification and billing. The Method used on the development of this system is a Dynamic System Development Method (DSDM) which is one of the methods in Agile methodology. The system is recommended to solve the existing challenges of reading of water meters and improve customer satisfaction in water service and management. Preliminary results of the prototype testing indicate that the system would send readings data to the server as well as the nodes receiving the instructions from the server. The developed prototype would also send weekly messages to customers about their weekly usage. This communication allows any billing issues to be resolved timely. Also, the system would highlight the readings which are doubtful for example zero readings for easily notification and verification.