The quality of our river water is of great concern. Last summer the monitoring by Horizons showed the status too often as orange or red. Read more about this at
- Our good old river
- The river runs red
- River water quality and
- River water quality — a personal view by A Veres.
One of the problems with the monitoring Horizons does is that the results appear several days after testing, and in that time the river’s status can change dramatically.
Imagine if we could know at any given moment exact levels of water-soluble nitrates and phosphates and E. coli!
We could have real-time information if we had a New Zealand developed RiverWatch water sensor.
This solar powered device measures water quality with its sensors and sends the data to a smartphone.
The River Watch water sensor has an integrated design, accommodating up to seven interchangeable water quality probes. It is inexpensive, at one tenth the cost of similar sensors on the market. RiverWatch has been developed and manufactured by local people for New Zealand conditions.
But before we can even consider buying one the creators, Water Action Initiative (WAI) NZ, need to develop it further and get it ready for commercial sales. To that end they’re looking for funding from the public, via their PledgeMe crowdfunding campaign that ends on 04 September 2017.
Can you spare a few dollars? Can you tell your friends about this?