A Dissertation Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of
Master’s in Information and Communication Science and Engineering of the Nelson
Mandela African Institution of Science and Technology
The decline of water quality in rivers and water basins caused by toxic chemicals, domestic
wastes and farm implements has become an ever-growing problem world wide. Population
growth, industrial and agriculture activities are the leading factors in polluting water sources.
At present, monitoring of water quality in rivers is so important due increase in waterborne
diseases and scarcity of clean water. However, acquiring real-time, accurate, reliable and
secured data is still a major challenge during monitoring of water quality in most river basins
existing in developing countries like Tanzania.
This study was conducted in upper Pangani river basin located in Arusha and Kilimanjaro
regions, Tanzania. Therefore, this study presents an innovative secured water monitoring,
control and management system using remote sensors, which has been developed to monitor
physiochemical parameters including pH, turbidity, temperature and dissolved oxygen. In
undertaking the study, a qualitative approach was used for gathering system requirements
through interviews with Pangani water basin information and communications technology
staffs ,water quality engineers and document reviews. From obtained qualitative information
the system was developed using dynamic system development methodology. As a result, the
innovative, low cost, reliable and secure system was successfully developed consisting of four
basic operational modules. The proposed system demonstrated the following results: real-time
measurements were taken from various water monitoring stations in the river basin at low-cost
and accurate, secure data transmission and storage from remote sensors to a central office
management system, measurements are visualized in a simple and clear manner by officials of
different level of expertise, the system provided decisions support on the quality of water
present in the rivers and water basins by evaluating the measurements and also provided short
message services alerts once the standards are exceeded.