Water quality in rural areas is difficult to monitor due to a lack of connectivity from different water laboratories. In other areas, location-based real-time water quality data collection is a tedious job and is highly dependent on human intervention. 

CSIR-CEERI, Pilani, has developed a handheld smart diagnostic system for remote monitoring of water quality parameters along with the flow rate and water volume consumption. The system measures various water quality parameters such as pH, TDS, salinity, conductivity, ORP, turbidity and temperature along with flow rate and water volume consumption. The system is also capable of transferring data from the device to the cloud using on-board GPRS services for remote monitoring and analysis purpose. It consumes very less power (400-600 MW) for sensing, data acquisition, operation and communication. 

It runs with 3.7 volts/1000 mAh rechargeable battery for more than 15 days. The system has an on-host small solar panel for continuous charging of the battery. Further, it also has a provision to charge using a regular USB DC mobile charger. A web-based dashboard has also been developed to monitor real-time data from the deployed nodes. 

The system has been tested rigorously and validated against standard buffer samples and also with existing third-party systems. It has also gone through an internal TRL evaluation process and the empowered committee assigned TRL-5 for the developed technology. The developed system has been installed at nearby villages of Rajasthan for detailed testing and performance evaluation. 

The complete developed technology was transferred to M/s WaterQuest Hydroresources, Ahmedabad (https://waterquestresources.com) in the year 2021 for mass production and commercialisation.

The company has successfully fabricated, tested and sold more than 100 pieces in the last three months globally.

Table-1: Overall System Technical Specifications