REAL TIME MONITORING TECHNIQUE FOR URBAN WATER

DISTRIBUTION SYSTEM
I. INTRODUCTION

When the wells dry, we will know the worth of water (Benjamin Franklin, 1741)

Water is not only significant for living beings but also, non-living entities rely on it. In other
words, water is the fuel for running mother earth. This is a known fact that only 0.3 percent of
total water present in our blue planet is accessible for use. This stunning realization hints that this
basic commodity has to be used judiciously in order to continue life. The need to safeguard this
scarce resource should increase with the increasing population, but actually, the present scenario
is quite different.

India, constituting almost 17 percent of the worlds population, is facing a grim future due to the
global problem of water crisis. Although 85 percent of urban population have access to drinking
water but only 3 out of 10 individuals are drinking safe water. Despite having an extensive
National Water Policy and existence of various centred and state level institutions, water resource
development and management has not been very satisfactory and the implementation of various
policies are not effective up to the mark. This can be blamed to abrupt rise in population and
inadequate plan outlay. The main sources of water are the reservoirs and groundwater. These
depend on two major monsoon seasons, South west and North east while other seasons are
relatively dry. Throughout the country there is temporal variation in the availability of
freshwater.

The most contentious issue with regard to urban water supply is the issue of adequate quantity and
quality of water which has to be supplied to the consumers. Domestic supply is the first priority
followed by industrial and irrigation supplies. There are various problems hampering the actual
aim of water supply. One of them is the lack of infrastructure and maintenance in water supply
and sanitation leading to contamination of water available to the consumers. The main cause of
contamination of groundwater and surface water is the improper discharge of sewage. More than
half of the cities in India have no sewage treatment facilities. The filthy water from these cities is
discharged out to open lands. Then it either infiltrates to groundwater directly or moves to nearby
surface water bodies. This contamination reaches the intake structure and is supplied to
consumers directly or after going through water treatment process. Rivers are the primary source
of supply to water treatment plants. Due to increase in establishments near the banks of river, the
point discharge of sewage has increased which reduces the self cleansing capacity of rivers. Poor
infrastructure facilities for proper collection, transportation, treatment and disposal of solid wastes
are further adding up to the problem. Industries located in the urban areas are not only large
consumers of freshwater, but also major contributors of pollution of freshwater sources. Although
large scale industries have their own Effluent Treatment Plant, the innumerable small and medium
scale industries have not yet invested in such facilities. These have led to the pollution of surface
and ground water sources in urban areas. With the increase in concrete forest, the possible
recharges of underground aquifers are prevented. Lack of sufficient quantity of freshwater and
high costs of supply has led to illegal and unsustainable tapping of water. The sluggish law and
order and its poor enforcement are also responsible for triggering water crisis in the country.
Thus, our urban areas rely on unsafe and scarce sources of water to meet increasing consumer
demands and provide them with consumable quality of water. Also, affordable access to safe and
sound water is the major challenge.
 II. PROJECT PROPOSAL

The current scenario of water distribution system in our urban cities is that water is taken from a
reservoir and then delivered to consumers either directly or it is treated in water treatment plant
before reaching the consumer. To deliver water to individual consumers with appropriate quality,
quantity and pressure in a community setting requires an extensive system of pipes, storage
reservoirs, pumps and related appurtenances. Any problem in the quality or quantity of water
flowing through the pipe network cannot be detected unless it reaches the consumer. Post filing of
complains, concerned authorities have to find the exact problem causing such issue and then
apply corrective measures. All these processes take time and till then the consumer has to suffer.
Water flowing through domestic water supply network should maintain stringent standards till the
end consumer of the network. Moreover, there is no quality check after the water is delivered
from the treatment plant. Although there are many instances like cross connection or leakage
through which the water can get contaminated in between the network. A survey is carried out
before designing any water distribution system for estimating the expected demand of the area.
The water with required pressure and flow rate is then delivered through the system. But due to
illegal tapping, leakage and various other problems, the water may not be delivered with required
pressure and flow to each and every consumer and it is difficult to rectify such issue. Also, some
consumers use domestic monoblock pumps and hence, the pressure of supply varies and may lead
to contamination of pipeline due to back siphonage. The hydraulic efficiency of pipes will
diminish with time because of tuberculation, encrustation, and sediment deposits which have to be
flushed off to ensure proper flow through pipes and in some cases, it has to be changed.
Identification of such pipes in the network is difficult and costly affair. At present, there is no real
time monitoring done in the water distribution system to check the above issues.

Solutions to one problem must be solutions to all. Real time monitoring of the water distribution
system will not only help to solve above issues but will ensure sustainable development by checking
the wastage of water. The proposed project is based on acquiring data of various significant
parameters in water distribution system through sensors and then collecting and communicating the
same to a distant computer where this information is used to check any anomaly in the water network.
This prototype will use Arduino circuits along with GSM and DAQ shields. In this project, an end to
end hardware and software system is developed for developing the prototype. The parameters in
which we are interested are water quality parameters- pH, turbidity, conductivity, dissolved oxygen
(DO) and temperature; flow rates and pressure. Various critical nodes are selected for acquiring
required data. The use of the following system will aid in reducing overall monitoring system cost, in
terms of facility setup and labour cost, and will also provide flexibility in terms of distance and
location. It will help in frequent monitoring of the water distribution system which will not only
enable to detect any contamination of water but will also help water treatment plant to take immediate
action to improve its quality. Leakage or any contamination source can be identified and its location
can be located, not exactly at that point, but at a particular stretch of pipeline. This will help to
enhance the repair operations. Since the water will be monitored throughout the pipeline network, it
will ensure safe water at the consumer end.

III. METHODOLOGY
 Fig. 1 Model of the project prototype

The pipe network is created as above using valves and pumps at required places. Then pH sensor,
flow sensors and pressure sensors are fixed at specified locations. Here, we have used only one
pH sensor which is representative of input for water quality parameters. Also, water quality
parameters need not be checked at frequent locations as they are unlikely to change frequently. A
small deviation in any water quality parameter will not pose a serious threat as water is safe for a
particular range. The sensors are connected to Arduino Uno circuits which will read the input
given by sensors and upload the data on internet. This data can be monitored and analysed from
any computer connected to internet. Arduino IDE software was used to write code which enables
the Arduino board to work accordingly. Sensors were calibrated before actual inputs were being
measured. Description of hardwares used in the project is given below.

FLOW SENSOR

The flow sensor used in this project works on the principle of Hall Effect. According to which,
a voltage difference is induced in a conductor transverse to the electric current and the magnetic
field perpendicular to it. Here, Hall Effect is utilized in the flow sensor using a small fan/propeller
shaped rotor which is placed in the path of liquid flowing. The liquid thus pushes against the fins
of the rotor, causing it to rotate. The shaft of the rotor is connected to a Hall Effect sensor. It is an
arrangement of a current flowing coil and a magnet connected to the shaft of the rotor. Thus, a
voltage/pulse is induced as this rotor rotates. In this flow meter, for every litre of liquid passing
through it per minute it outputs about 4.5 pulses. This is due to the changing magnetic field
caused by the magnet attached to the rotor shaft, as seen in the picture below. We measure the
number of pulses using an Arduino.

Fig 2. Flow Sensor

And then calculate the flow rate in L/hr using a simple conversion formula.

PRESSURE SENSOR

It is used to measure pressure. It usually acts as a transducer i.e. it generates a signal as a function
of the pressure imposed. A transducer converts pressure into analog signals. The pressure sensor
which was used is G1/4 Transducer Sensor 0-0.5MPa for Hydraulic/ Pneumatic Pressure Gauge.
It gives reading in MPa. It measures 0.5 MPa as maximum reading.

Fig 3. Pressure Sensor

 pH SENSOR

Liquid pH value detection module is used to measure pH of water. It has various pins which has
different functions. Pins are connected to Arduino board as per their specifications and a pH probe
is put in the BNS pin of the module. Then calibration is done on the module. Firstly, the BNS is
short-circuited and the voltage is checked and by adjusting pot (potentiometer) near the BNS, the
value of voltage is kept at 2.5 V. This is the voltage corresponding to pH 7. Now, standard pH
solutions of pH 4.2 and 7 are used to measure the amount of voltage given by them. We can say
that the pH sensor is calibrated and the corresponding voltages of known pH are used in the code
to get the correct pH value of water.

Fig. pH and Temperature Detection Module

Temperature Sensor

Temperature sensors measure the amount of heat energy generated by the liquid and convert it to
analog or digital output. The one wire Digital Temperature Sensor - DS18B20 from Maxim is a
great chip for measuring temperature. Luckily, there is a Dallas Temperature library for the
Arduino which makes using this sensor very easy. Temperature sensor is used to measure
temperature of the water flowing through the pipeline and various parameters like pH depends on
temperature to give accurate reading.

ARDUINO UNO

Arduino/Genuino Uno is a microcontroller based on the ATmega328P. It has 14 digital

input/output pins (of which 6 can be used as PWM outputs), 6 analog inputs, a 16 MHz quartz
crystal, a USB connection, a power jack, an ICSP header and a reset button. It is either connected
to the computer through USB or powered with AC-DC adapter or battery to get started. Arduino is
an open source electronics platform based on easy-to-use hardware and software. Boards are able
to read input and turn it into output. Board is made to do so by sending a set of instructions by
Arduino programming language and the Arduino software (IDE). Arduino has several analog
input pins that connect to an ADC (Analog to Digital Convertor) inside the Arduino. The ADC is
a ten bit convertor, meaning that output value will range from 0 to 1023 bytes. It is used widely
due to its simple and accessible user experience.

We have also planned to include android app in this project as it will help to increase efficiency of
the project and make it more user friendly. For this project, we are planning to develop an Android
app which can help a person to monitor a network of pipes having the sensors installed. It will also
serve as a warning system in case when the parameters measured by the sensors exceed a defined
limit. The app will have following important features-

Area wise distribution of the pipe network.

A tabular spreadsheet of the data obtained from sensors at different date and time.
A graphical representation of the data observed v/s time.
Access to mail so that the data can be saved at one click.

We are also planning to set an alarming system in case; the data is interrupted due to any reason, So
that we may rectify the problem as early as possible.

IV. EFFECTS OF THE PROJECT

1. Ecological effect

This monitoring system will take less space than old system and provide more efficient
monitoring. The leakage and illegal tapping of water can be reduced effectively which will save
wastage of water. This will prove to be highly sustainable approach as per capita demand will
reduce significantly.

2. Economic effect

The water which is flowing through the water distribution network has been procured from the
reservoir by using pumps. Also pumps are used at various points within the network where
topographic conditions are not suitable for free flow. These pumps utilize energy to work and the
amount of energy utilized is directly proportional to the amount of water coming through the pipe
network. If the water of the reservoir is not portable, it is made so in the water treatment plant
which requires large infrastructure to carry various processes like sedimentation, aeration,
filtration, etc and chemicals are used to purify water. Hence, a large amount of money is invested
to make portable water available to the consumers and if consumers are not satisfied then the
whole money invested is a waste. Real time monitoring of water distribution network will help to
serve its actual purpose effectively. It will also reduce the untenable surplus of water and thus, the
money invested per volume of water will be reduced. Repair and maintenance activity can be
made competent, further saving loads of money involved for it.

3. Cultural effect

Water network are generally concealed underground and are relatively inaccessible. The insitu,
real time monitoring of water distribution system will facilitate efficient management and
operation. Also effective detection and localization of pipe failures will help in solving the
problem as quickly as possible. This will reduce the sufferings of the consumers due to various
failures in the network. The society will surely be benefited from such system. The frequent
monitoring of water quality within the pipe network will help to reduce contamination of water
within distribution system and also, if contamination occurs, disinfection can be done effectively
and quickly so that the consumer has access to safe water. This will help to maintain hale and
hearty community and prevent outbreak of water borne diseases. Also the consumer will have
access to the required quality of water for which he is paying off. This system will ensure
equitable distribution of water with required pressure and flow.

V. CHALLENGES HAMPERING IMPLEMENTATION OF THE SYSTEM

 The projected system for real time monitoring requires sophisticated equipments and lot of
care has to be accessed for its proper functioning.
The sensors used for data acquisition are expensive and fragile.
Skilled personnel are required for working of this system.
Large investment is required to setup the system.
Including this system in the existing network is a major challenge.

Despite of all this difficulties, this system is a onetime investment and will yield beneficial results if
implemented. Very little energy is needed for fuelling of the whole system. It will cut down other
costs as discussed above and prove to be cheaper at a long run. Solar panels can be used to provide
energy to run the system. Once accepted, there is a scope of research in this field to bring out various
improvements.

VI. FUTURE SCOPE

The sustainability of this monitoring system makes it an essential component in future construction
projects. Smart cities like Naya Raipur can adopt this system for efficient supply of water. Also, if this
real time monitoring system proves to be successful in water distribution network, it can be applied in
wastewater drainage network too. Furthermore, this concept can be used to efficiently utilise
wastewater. The water which we use for washing of cars, lanes, floors; watering of gardens, lawns;
flushing of toilets and various other miscellaneous uses, meets drinking water stringent standards. A
huge amount of money is invested to bring water to portable standards, while such uses dont require
such good quality of water. Eventually, this water is disposed off and there is no provision for
recycling or reuse of drained off water. The same system with some modifications can be used to
reuse drained off water for domestic purposes other than drinking. Also, this system can be
implemented in water supply network of metropolitan cities as most of them are facing the problem of
water crisis.

VII. CONCLUSION

This essay discusses the importance of water and the problems faced by us in the water supply
network in the present scenario. To cope up with this, a model of real time monitoring of water
distribution system is proposed which uses integrated system of sensors and Arduino circuitry along
with software to monitor various parameters of flow within the pipe network. We have kept the
provision for android app so that the user has direct control over the monitoring going on and alarms
can be generated to signal any problem. The limitations of this model can be solved by further
research into this area. Although, by building this monitoring system, hydraulic anomalies can be
readily identified and it offers a promising approach for remote detection of the problem and helps in
solving it as quickly as possible. The future scope of this system has been discussed and further study
in that area could be beneficial to the society. Overall, implementing the real time monitoring
technique for urban water distribution system will be highly economical and sustainable in the long
run.

VIII. REFERENCES

1. Water Distribution on Earth (2013), https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Water_distribution_on_Earth.

2. Statistics of water distribution on earth (2015), http://nationalgeographic.org/media/earths-fresh-
water.

3. Howard S. Peavy, Donald R. Rowe and George Tchobanoglous (2013) Environmental

Engineering, McGraw Hill Education Private limited.

4. Seshan Srirangarajan, Michael Allen, Ami Preis, Mudasser Iqbal, Hock Beng Lim & Andrew J.
Whittle (2012), Wavelet-based Burst Event Detection and Localization in Water Distribution Systems,
In : Springer Science+Business Media, LLC .

5. Fredrick Romanus Ishengoma (2014), A Novel Design of IEEE 802.15.4 and Solar Based
Autonomous Water Quality Monitoring Prototype using ECHERP, In: Vol. 2 No.1 ISSN 2345-3397.