TN-66 : Automatic water quality monitoring

Abstract

Increasing development of towns and industries has resulted in an increase in water consumption and waste water volume. Therefore, the danger of pollution has become greater for natural water sources and especially surface waters. One of the main problem of the public economy and health today, is the pollution of surface basins, as the water wasted by chemical and biological agents causes or favours serious diseases. In addition to its direct influence on public health, water pollution is unfavourably affecting the quality of water supplies, which adversely affect the water consumption and also the standard of comfort and sanitation of the people.

Chemical pollution by organic matter, even in low concentrations and impossible to detect by means of the routine manual methods, results in a modification of the organoliptic properties. The low concentrations do not cause acute symptoms that are felt immediately, but if the substance have cumulative and synergistic action, chronic diseases may result. It is still more complicated if the diseases are caused by substances with a strong toxic action, resulting in a modifications which can not be felt by the water consumers. The situation is much more severe with substances which have a synergistic or intensifying action. Under such conditions optimum treatment can only be achieved when the quality of the raw water is accurately known at All times.

Water quality is a complicated function of a number of parameters seen as temperature , conductivity, dissolved oxygen, turbidity, pH, chloride, phenols etc, which may very in an in predictive manner. To study such a function I water quality) successfully, a large number of stations, capable of sampling and their analysis for various required parameters, are necessary to set up over a given stretch. of river to be studied. An increase in the number of stations, and an increase of manual sampling and water sample analysis frequency for monitoring over a station is directly associated with a significant increase of labour consumption and costs. This could be minimized by the installation of automatic water quality monitoring stations equipped with modern units for continuous measurement and recording of water quality parameters. Furthermore, the data so obtained will be more systematic and reliable which may he used for a more reliable study of water quality of a given stretch of river.