In Devon, researchers at the University of Plymouth are pioneering a cutting-edge method for remotely assessing the cleanliness of bathing waters. Their project aims to develop autonomous technology that can be deployed atop equipment like buoys, stationed at beaches or within rivers.
This advanced system will enable frequent water sampling throughout the day. With the help of collected data analyzed on-site and transmitted back to shore. The initiative comes in the wake of a recent water parasite outbreak in parts of Brixham, where precautionary boil notices remain in effect.
Advancing Water Quality Monitoring
On Thursday, the UK Health Security Agency reported that the number of confirmed cases of people affected by cryptosporidium has increased to 100. South West Water (SWW) bosses admitted that more work is needed to completely clean up the contamination.
SWW CEO Susan Davy apologized for the problem and admitted that the water company hadn’t done a good enough job. A project to test water quality over 18 months, run by the University of Plymouth and Molendotech Ltd, has received £330,000 from Innovate UK.
Currently, organizations like the Environment Agency rely on manually collected water samples sent to labs for testing.
Prof Simon Jackson from Molendotech Ltd explained that they aim to autonomously monitor water quality. This means they want to test water without needing people to take samples and send them to labs.
Their goal is to test water quality wherever they need to, like in bays, on beaches, or along rivers. They would then continuously monitor water quality and send the results back to create a map of water quality for specific areas.
Water Quality Concerns in Devon
Dr. Keiron Fraser, who teaches about saving sea animals at the University of Plymouth, mentioned, “In the future, you might be able to use an app to check how clean a beach is from sewage almost instantly.”
