Short message service (SMS) based system for monitoring free chlorine concentration and Ph in the water reservoirs

Abstract

Chlorine is the most common and affordable chemical reagent used for killing harmful micro organisms in the water to eliminate the spread of waterborne diseases such as cholera and diarrhoea. According to World Health Organization, a free chlorine level within 0.5~1 mg/l and a pH level within 6.5~8.5 is recommended for human consumption. It is essential to monitor water quality parameters such as free chlorine in the water since a lower value will not disinfect water efficiently while extreme values of free chlorine may affect the community’s health. Zanzibar Water Authority (ZAWA) employs colorimetric approach to manually measure free chlorine in the water reservoirs and submit the results into the kobocollect mobile application. However, this approach is prone to human errors, ineffective and time consuming. The objective of this current project was to develop a SMS-based system for monitoring free chlorine concentration and pH in the water reservoirs. Extreme Programming (XP) agile development methodology accompanied with V-Model were employed for developing and testing of the proposed system. The developed system consists of hardware device and dashboard for remote monitoring of water quality parameters such as free chlorine concentration and pH. The hardware device sends sensor data and notification alerts as SMS. The device is energy efficient since it uses SMS to send sensor data. The device can be deployed in a noisy environment since it uses RS485 communication protocol to communicate with the free chlorine sensor. The developed dashboard is used for remote monitoring of the sensor data. The dashboard is user friendly and practical since it was designed with the end users. The system was tested and validated by the end users to ensure all requirements were met. The developed system has a potential capability to improve management of water reservoirs by enhancing transparency, cooperation, and accountability among stakeholders.