Water quality monitoring and waste management using IoT

Poor water quality in Pettipalam Colony in Thalassery, Kannur District, Kerala is the source of many health issues among the colony residents. Soil and water contamination due to the accumulation of waste is another serious issue that adversely affects the health of the inhabitants in the area. There is a compelling need for the village inhabitants to appropriately monitor the water bodies and take suitable measures to dispose of the waste in the area. Over 2 acres of land is inhabited by people in Pettipalam Colony at Thalassery. Their colony ground was used as a municipal waste dump yard until 2014. Presently, also, the colony residents use the area for waste disposal and open defecation, thus contaminating the land and soil with plastic, organic, and chemical pollutants, etc. These contaminants affect the ground water and get washed into the water bodies when it rains, thus polluting the water resources. Techniques such as Bio-remediation (use of microorganisms to remove or neutralize pollutants) and vermi-composting, which triggers growth of plants that absorb the contaminants, can be introduced to address the issue of reducing the level of contaminants in the soil. But these solutions require proper identification of the contaminants. An extensive sensor system, which can monitor the contaminants in the soil as well as the water bodies, is essential. This project aims to design and develop an IoT based system that can sense the environmental parameters and effectively deliver information on the level of contamination and the quality of the water. Sensors to detect the hydrocarbons, chemical and metal content in the soil can be integrated into a soil probe for monitoring the soil contamination. And sensors for detecting pH, conductivity, dissolved oxygen, turbidity, etc. can be used for monitoring the water quality in the rivers, ponds, etc. in the site of interest. The design, development and implementation of an IoT based system will help the authorities take the necessary steps to perform proper waste management of the affected area. We anticipate that monitoring the suitable parameters will help to impact land restoration initiatives in many areas of India.