Design and Analysis of Water Quality Monitoring and Filtration System For Different Types of Water in Malaysia

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International Journal of Environmental Science and Technology (2023) 20:3789–3800

https://doi.org/10.1007/s13762-022-04192-x

ORIGINAL PAPER

Design and analysis of water quality monitoring and filtration system


for different types of water in Malaysia
N. A. Razman1 · W. Z. Wan Ismail1   · M. H. Abd Razak1 · I. Ismail1 · J. Jamaludin1

Received: 27 May 2021 / Revised: 31 December 2021 / Accepted: 10 April 2022 / Published online: 11 June 2022
© The Author(s) under exclusive licence to Iranian Society of Environmentalists (IRSEN) and Science and Research Branch, Islamic Azad University 2022

Abstract
Water pollution always occurs in Malaysia due to industrial, construction, agriculture, and household activities. River pol-
lution can disturb water supply that eventually affects business and household activities. Thus, water quality monitoring
system is needed to detect contaminated water. We developed a water quality monitoring and filtration system controlled by
Arduino. The proposed system was designed in Proteus software and ThingSpeak platform was used for real-time monitor-
ing. The main objective of the study was to compare water quality of river, lake and tap water in terms of pH, temperature,
turbidity, electrical conductivity and oxidation–reduction potential. If the water quality was not satisfied, the water sample
would be filtered through filtration system. Water turbidity level, pH, temperature, electrical conductivity, and oxidation–
reduction potential for filtered and nonfiltered water were compared and analyzed according to international and national
water quality standard. Besides that, statistical analysis such as box plot and one-way analysis of variance test was applied
to validate data from the system. The real-time water quality monitoring system was implemented through data storage,
data transfer, and data processing. The system was connected to wireless fidelity whereas the output data was sent to the
user and monitored by ThingSpeak. The system can be further upgraded and scaled up to be applied in the main tank at
our home or factory. The outcome of this research can be used as a reference for further study on lake and river pollution
monitoring system.

Keywords  Turbidity · Ph · Temperature · Electrical conductivity · Oxidation–reduction potential · Boxplot · Analysis of
variance

Introduction pollution. Groundwater sources near agricultural areas,


radioactive waste landfills, municipal water supply sources,
Surface water and groundwater are the main water sup- and waste dumps are mostly polluted with arsenic, iron, lead
plies for Malaysia. Although Malaysia has abundant water and others (Khalit 2008; Bilal et al. 2016). Water pollution
resources, the accelerating pace of industrial development increases in parallel with the country development that
and population growth in recent decades has affected the shows the requirement to detect water pollutants. Detection
quality of water (Bao 2010). Pandemic issue, Covid-19 also system was built to recognize metal ions in water using col-
affects water quality when the non-essential services such orimetric sensors (Alberti et al. 2020). Raril and Manjunatha
as work for development project are ceased (Najah 2021). (2020) developed a system that traced mercury and lead ions
Domestic sewage, waste, and discharge from agriculture in water through the usage of polyglycine-modified graphene
and manufacturing industries are the main sources of river paste electrode. Each pollutant has distinct characteristics
that can be traced. Thus, the detection system needs to be
fast, accurate, and continuously up to date.
Editorial responsibility: Samareh Mirkia. Monitoring water quality was previously done based on
temporal and spatial scales which used multi-metric indices
* W. Z. Wan Ismail
drwanzakiah@usim.edu.my and operational indicators (Sany 2018). The quality of water
in canals, drains and irrigation wells were analyzed and com-
1
Advanced Device and System, Faculty of Engineering pared using MODFLOW software which could forecast the
and Built Environment, Universiti Sains Islam Malaysia, effects of surface water on groundwater in long-term period
71800 Nilai, Negeri Sembilan, Malaysia

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3790 International Journal of Environmental Science and Technology (2023) 20:3789–3800

(Galal et al. 2020). It is essential to measure and monitor on IoT technology was applied to analyze live data streams.
physical, chemical, and biological parameters of water in Analysis was done for different types of water where one-
order to identify its quality. Then, types of water treatment way Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) test was used to observe
can be identified before it can be supplied to consumers as the significance of the experimental results. The quality of
tap water and drinking water (Huang et al. 2015; Alsulaili filtered and unfiltered water was also compared according to
et al. 2015). Elsheikh et al. (2018) compared three different water quality standard established by World Health Organi-
types of water filtration systems and allowed assessment and zation (Jabatan Alam Sekitar 2019; Engineering Services
evaluation to be made towards the execution and fulfillment Division 2016; WHO 2011). Due to ongoing Restricted
of each water filtration systems. Delgado et al. (2020) deter- Movement Control Order from Malaysian Government
mined the effect of illegal mining on the water quality by because of Covid-19 Pandemic, water samples are limited
applying grey system. By applying grey clustering method, to sites situated in Nilai, Negeri Sembilan. The water sam-
water quality was grouped into three categories: good, mod- ples consisted of tap water taken from a local household
erate, and low water quality. Supriyono et al. (2020) devel- situated in Nilai, river water from Mahang River and lake
oped a telemonitoring system that automatically measured water from a lake in Universiti Sains Islam Malaysia. The
and collected variables of water and air quality in coastal sampling process was done in the month of November 2020
fishponds and continuously displayed the data to the user. for ten hours (from 9:00 a.m. until 6:00 p.m) a day.
Water quality management and monitoring networks are
also crucial. The allowed wastewater discharge rates for con-
taminant resources depend on two factors: treatment costs
and water quality standard (Aghasian et al. 2017). Aghasian Materials and methods
et al. integrated water quality simulation model with parti-
cle swarm optimization model and developed various pollu- a) Water sampling method
tion loadings discharge policies using bankruptcy method.   Water samples were collected from Mahang River, a
Results showed that the proposed model reduced the salin- lake in Universiti Sains Islam Malaysia, and tap water.
ity of the allocated water demands leading to a decrease We monitored pH, turbidity, temperature, electrical
in salinity discharged into the river. Genetic algorithm was conductivity (EC), and oxidation–reduction potential
developed to minimize wastewater treatment costs and (ORP) of the samples from 9:00 a.m. until 6:00 p.m.
dissolved oxygen violation from the standard level. This for 10 h. Water samples were also transferred into a
method was estimated to reduce waste load from 145.5 to tank to undergo filtration process. Readings from the
79 and treatment cost from the range of ($160,000–180,000) sensors were collected, translated and processed by the
to ($100,000–130,000). Thus, the proposed models can sat- microcontroller before being displayed using LCD and
isfy water quality with low treatment cost (Farjoudi et. al. uploaded into cloud storage for monitoring.
2020). Meanwhile, monitoring network of groundwater was b) System design
designed using DRASTIC method and capture zone analysis   We designed a water monitoring and filtration sys-
where the design was developed according to monitoring tem using sensors to detect temperature, pH value,
wells priority. Differential Evolution (DE) algorithm was oxidation–reduction potential (ORP), electrical con-
used to optimize the DRASTIC model in order to find the ductivity (EC), and turbidity. A microcontroller unit
highest correlation between high and vulnerable areas of consisted of Arduino Uno and Mega, was used as the
electrical conductivity. The authors claimed that by proper main controller. We also used a data transmission
estimating vulnerability of existing wells and the capture block, ESP8266 Wi-Fi module and a water filtration
zones, the monitoring wells could be prioritized (Yousefi et. unit which consisted of a water pump and a water filter.
al. 2021). Thus, proper water quality monitoring, filtering,   NodeMCU software and open-source framework
and treatment methods are needed. were used to construct Internet of Things (IoT)
Most previous studies on water quality monitoring sys- devices. The data processed by the microcontroller
tem used different microcontroller unit such as Raspberry unit was uploaded and updated into Cloud storage and
Pi, Arduino, and Waspmote. The studies mainly focused ThingSpeak application through data communication
on the capability of the system to monitor water quality by unit, ESP8266 Wi-Fi module. After logging into the
detecting water quality parameter using various electronics ThingSpeak application with our unique user ID and
sensors. The previous research focused more on the system password, we could access data from the monitoring
design without doing any analysis. system in real-time provided that the system was con-
This study proposes a real-time water quality monitoring nected to the internet. Water quality for filtered and
system using Arduino and five types of sensors, completed unfiltered water was also compared. Figure 1 shows
with data analysis. ThingSpeak open-source software based the flowchart of the system.

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International Journal of Environmental Science and Technology (2023) 20:3789–3800 3791

Fig. 1  Flow Chart of the Water Quality Monitoring System

  The Arduino Uno processed the turbidity, pH, tem- a filtration system. The sensor readings of the filtered
perature, electrical conductivity (EC), and oxidation– water were observed and compared with the unfiltered
reduction potential (ORP) of the water samples and water.
sent to the ThingSpeak application using internet net- c) Analysis Methods
work. ThingSpeak application displayed the tempera- (i) Boxplot analysis
ture, turbidity, pH, electrical conductivity (EC) and   We used boxplot analysis to observe the range of
oxidation–reduction potential (ORP) value of water data and to identify any abnormal data. Boxplot is a
in real-time. Based on Fig. 1, we determined the bad technique to describe and summarize data. Boxplot
quality of water if the sensor readings exceed range graph shows the data distribution, range, minimum
of the threshold values. Water would be automatically value, maximum value, mean, and skewness by
pumped into a water filter for the filtration process. The showing five-number summary of a set of data which
threshold values for the sensors were set according to includes minimum and maximum range values, lower
the limit set in the national water standard and World quartile, upper quartile, and median (Potter 2006).
Health Organization (WHO) (Jabatan Alam Sekitar (ii) One-way ANOVA
2019; Engineering Services Division 2016; WHO Analysis of variance (ANOVA) is a statistical
2011). The sensors were easy to use, cost-effective, method that is useful to give important informa-
and portable. Figure 2 shows the circuit design of the tion like interpreting outcomes of an experiment
system in Proteus software. Simulation was done using and identifying the influence of a factor on the pro-
the Proteus software to ensure the system could run cessing parameters by comparing the mean values
properly before assembling the real circuit on board. of some samples (Ostertagova 2013). One-way
 Figure 3 shows the electronic circuit of the proposed ANOVA is used for data that are divided into sev-
water quality monitoring system. All water quality eral groups associated with only one factor. The
parameter sensors, LCD display, Wi-Fi module and mean values are compared to determine the signifi-
water pump were connected to the main microcon- cant level of differences in the associated popula-
troller board. Figure 4 shows water quality system tion of samples. One-way ANOVA test produces F
with filtration unit. Lake and river water samples were value (Eq. 1) (Sullivan 2021) and p-value.
collected, stored and monitored in a tank connected to

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3792 International Journal of Environmental Science and Technology (2023) 20:3789–3800

Fig. 2  Circuit design drawn in Proteus Software. The design was translated into hardware system in Fig. 3

Fig. 3  Electronic circuit of the proposed water quality monitoring Fig. 4  The proposed technique of monitoring water with water filtra-
system tion system

∑ � �2
nj X j − X ∕(k − 1) MSbetween is the probability of F statistical values that measures
F= �2 = (1) the evidence to accept or reject hypothesis. To evaluate
∑∑� MSwithin
X − X j ∕(N − k) the null hypothesis, the differences between means are
identified by comparing the p-value with the standard
nj is the size of jth group, X j is the sample mean in significance level, 0.05 (Ostertagova 2013).
jth group, X is the overall mean, k is the number
of independent groups and N is the total number of
observations in the analysis (Sullivan 2021). MS rep- Results and discussion
resents mean squares, thus MSbetween is the mean sum
of squares between sample groups and MSwithin is the In this section, we depict output from water quality monitor-
mean sum of squares within the sample groups. F ing system and analyze the output based on five water quality
value is used to determine p-value where the p-value parameters: pH, temperature, turbidity, oxidation–reduction

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International Journal of Environmental Science and Technology (2023) 20:3789–3800 3793

potential and electrical conductivity. Real-time values of the phosphate and nitrate ions (EPA 2012). Meanwhile, oxi-
parameters are observed through Thingspeak application dation–reduction potential (ORP) can be defined as the
which indirectly can assist users to monitor the system con- capability of a water source to break down waste products
tinuously. Figure 5 shows the real-time water quality moni- like dead plants and animals. Unpolluted lakes and rivers
toring system for users of ThingSpeak application. have high value of oxidation–reduction potential, show-
ing that the water has high amount of dissolved oxygen
(a) Physical parameters of water quality with box (Kremer 2018).
plot analysis Monitoring water quality parameters is done by taking
the readings of the sensors for ten hours from 9:00 a.m. until
Temperature is an important parameter for water monitoring 6:00 p.m. All water quality parameters detected in the sys-
system as the taste, smells, viscosity, solubility and chemical tem are compared with the National Water Quality Standard
reactions are influenced by temperature (APHA 2005; Alley and Drinking Water Quality Standard (WHO 2011; Engi-
2007). Turbidity describes the cloudiness of water due to the neering Services Division 2016).
presence of suspended particles like clay, silts, and precipita- Figure 6 (a) shows temperature values for tap, lake and
tion of chemical and organic particles (APHA 2005; WHO river water and Fig. 6 (b) depicts the range of temperature
2017). Turbidity can be used as a good indicator to detect in boxplot. There are two abnormal temperature values for
the presence of dangerous particles and contaminants (WHO tap water and river water shows higher fluctuation compared
2017). Turbidity is expressed in terms of nephelometric tur- to others. The fluctuation in temperature is due to sensitiv-
bidity unit (NTU). Turbidity above 5 NTU is visible to eyes ity of sensors. Figure 6 (a) and (b) show that river water
(WHO 2017). The pH is an important water quality param- has the lowest temperature with the range from 27.87 °C
eter to determine the basicity of an aqueous solution. The to 28.91 °C with the average, 28.19 °C and the standard
pH value from 0 to 14 indicates the acidity, neutrality or deviation, 0.349. Lake water has the highest range of tem-
alkalinity of the water (Tomar 1999). Acidic solution has perature, from 30.18 to 30.76 °C with the average, 30.32 °C
pH less than 7 and pH ~ 7 indicates a neutral solution. Mean- and the standard deviation, 0.170. The temperature of tap
while, pH greater than 7 indicates an alkalic solution (WHO water fluctuates from 27.6 to 30 °C. The mean temperature
2011). Unreasonably high or low pH of water is not safe for is 29.55 °C and the standard deviation value is 0.754. Lake
household usage and drinking water (DeZuane 1997). The water has the highest temperature as the surface of the water
acceptable pH for consuming and drinking water is from 6.5 is exposed to sunlight and has zero or low motion water.
to 9 (Engineering Services Division 2016) whereas water Lake water also shows stable temperature, proved by the
temperature can be influenced by surrounding environment. small standard deviation whereas temperature of tap water
Electrical conductivity (EC) refers to the ability of elec- fluctuates resulting in the highest standard deviation. Tap
tric to flow in the water. Conductivity value of water is water comes from tank and pipe, can be easily affected by
normally constant throughout the times. Thus, any changes the temperature of the day. Water takes longer time to warm
in conductivity depict the possibility of water pollution up and cool down compared to air. River water has the low-
due to chemical reaction with water. Conductivity will est temperature because it is continuously flowing resulting
increase due to the presence of chemicals like chloride, in slow heat transfer.
Figure 7 (a) and (b) show the pH variations of water sam-
ples and the boxplot for pH values. Normal tap water has
neutral pH from 7.16 to 8.33 with the average pH, 7.551 and
the standard deviation, 0.477. High fluctuation of pH in tap
water (Fig. 7 (b)) is attributed to chemicals in the water as
pH is related to the amount of hydrogen and hydroxyl ions.
(Tomar 1999). River water has higher pH compared to tap
water with the range from 8.04 to 8.16, the average pH, 8.09
and standard deviation, 0.062. Lake water has the highest pH
ranging from 9.04 to 9.18. The mean pH for lake water sam-
ple is 9.09 with standard deviation, 0.051. The lake water
has the highest pH due to the presence of carbonated-rich
soils like limestone. Besides that, algae and aquatic plants in
the lake water apply photosynthesis process that uses hydro-
gen which also can contribute to the high pH in the lake
Fig. 5  The display of the ThingSpeak application shows the turbid-
ity of the river water. Date and time are also displayed for real-time water (Fondriest Environmental 2013). The pH of river and
monitoring lake can also be affected by the activities at the shoreline.

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3794 International Journal of Environmental Science and Technology (2023) 20:3789–3800

Fig. 6  a Temperature values for three water samples; b Temperature boxplot for three water samples. Ten readings are used for the analysis

Fig. 7  a pH variation for three water samples; b pH boxplot for three water samples. Ten readings are used for the analysis

Figure 8 (a) and (b) show the turbidity variations and The river water is turbid due to the presence of suspended
the boxplot for all samples. Lake water depicts the highest and colloidal matter like clay, silt, finely divided organic and
fluctuation of turbidity in 10 h (Fig. 8 (b)), due to variation inorganic matter, plankton and other microscopic organisms
of organic materials. Tap water shows the lowest turbidity (Allen et al. 2008). Lake has the highest range of turbidity,
level whereas river depicts the highest turbidity level. Tap attributed to the clays, silts, suspended bottom sediments,
water has turbidity level from 0 to 2 NTU. The mean value phytoplankton and algae. According to Malaysia National
is 0.24 NTU and the standard deviation value is 0.622. River Water Standard, based on the turbidity, pH and temperature
water depicts turbidity level from 48.05 NTU to 98.43 NTU of all water samples, tap water is safe to be consumed but
while lake water sample shows the highest turbidity values, lake and river water need to be treated and filtered before
from 136.92 NTU to 223.72 NTU. The mean turbidity value we can consume it as drinking water (Jabatan Alam Sekitar
for river and lake samples are 77.004 NTU and 181.292 2019).
NTU respectively. The standard deviation of the turbidity for Figure 9 shows the electrical conductivity values of the
river and lake water are 16.860 and 39.07, showing higher water samples. Due to the use of chlorine that contains
fluctuation compared to tap water. Tap water has the lowest electrons in water treatment process, tap water shows the
turbidity level because the water is transparent and clear. highest range of electrical conductivity values and highest

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Fig. 8  a Turbidity values for the three water samples; b Turbidity boxplot for three water samples. Ten readings are used for the analysis

Fig. 9  a Electrical conductivity values for three water samples; b Electrical conductivity boxplot for three water samples. Ten readings are used
for the analysis

fluctuation (Kremer 2018). Electrical conductivity of tap river water has the lowest oxidation–reduction potential
water has maximum value ~ 1.81mS/cm and minimum readings with range from 153 to 173  mV and standard
value ~ 0.88mS/cm with standard deviation ~ 0.33 and deviation ~ 6.15. Tap water has the highest range of oxida-
mean ~ 1.2mS/cm. The range of electrical conductivity of tion–reduction potential due to water treatment that involves
river water is from 0.22 to 0.33mS/cm, the lowest range chlorine. Chlorine is used in water treatment to kill bacteria,
compared to other samples. The mean and standard devia- parasites, viruses and microbes in water by neutralizing and
tion of electrical conductivity for river water are 0.25 and oxidizing bacteria, parasites, viruses and microbes. This
0.04 respectively. Charged ions in river and lake water come oxidation process increases the level of oxidation–reduc-
from the presence of dissolved minerals like clay soils or tion potential values of water (Kremer 2018). The oxida-
limestone (Huron River Watershed Council 2013). tion–reduction potential values of river and lake water
Figure  10 shows the readings of oxidation–reduction samples fall slightly under the healthy range of freshwater
potential of the water samples. The oxidation–reduc- oxidation–reduction potential value, from 300 to 500 mil-
tion potential values of tap water are in the highest range, livolts. Lower oxidation–reduction value is also expected at
from 280 to 289 mV with standard deviation ~ 3.14 while the bottom of the lake and river. Oxygen level at the bottom

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3796 International Journal of Environmental Science and Technology (2023) 20:3789–3800

Fig. 10  a Oxidation–reduction potential variation of three water samples; b Oxidation–reduction potential boxplot for three water samples. Ten
readings are used for the analysis

Table 1  One-way ANOVA test for different water parameters table, the p-value of all parameters is less than 0.05. Thus,
Parameters F p-value
null hypothesis is rejected. For all water parameters tested,
at least one group of water samples has a significant differ-
pH 78.1138 5.93 × ­10–12 ≈ 0.0000 ence from overall mean of the water samples. The statisti-
Temperature 48.6633 1.11 × ­10–09 ≈ 0.0000 cal significance shows that data collected are probably true
Turbidity 136.7881 7.43 × ­10–15 ≈ 0.0000 and is due to factors of interest. Thus, we strongly suppose
Electrical conductivity 62.3271 7.62 × ­10–11 ≈ 0.0000 that pH, temperature, turbidity, electrical conductivity, and
Oxidation–reduction potential 466.1869 1.17 × ­10–21 ≈ 0.0000 oxidation–reduction potential can give effect the analysis of
water quality.

of the lake and river is low due to the usage of the oxygen (c) Comparison of filtered and unfiltered water
by bacteria (Wetzel 2001).
Figure  11 shows the turbidity, pH and temperature of
(b) Statistical analysis—One‑way ANOVA normal tap water from the same source for two days. As
normal tap water is commonly safe to be used, the water
One-way Analysis of variance (ANOVA) model is done does not need to undergo filtration process. The tap water
to test the null hypothesis that states all parameters have sample from same source is compared for two different
similar population mean. If the variability of the sample days. The mean value for turbidity, pH value and tempera-
mean is large, the null hypothesis is rejected. The alter- ture of the tap water sample in the first and second day are
nate hypothesis that states at least one population mean 0.1 NTU, 7.501 and 29.21 °C respectively. The standard
is different from the others will be accepted (Ostertagova deviation values for tap water in both days are 0.208 for
2013). When there are statistically significant differences turbidity, 0.429 for pH values and 1.026 for temperature.
between the means, p-value is less than or equal to α value The mean and standard deviation depicts that the system
(0.05). Null hypothesis is rejected as there is at least one is reliable due to less fluctuation especially for turbid-
different population mean. Table 1 shows one-way ANOVA ity sensing system. The turbidity readings for tap water
test results done using OriginPro software. The one-way are lower than 1 NTU, in the safe range of water quality
ANOVA test revealed that there was a statistically significant (WHO 2017). The pH of the tap water shows that the water
difference in the means of pH, temperature, turbidity, electri- is in the neutral and light alkalic range. The temperature
cal conductivity and oxidation–reduction potential between of tap water fluctuates depending on the weather and sur-
at least two groups with (F(3,10) = [78.1138], p = 0.0000), rounding environment. Figure 12 shows the turbidity, tem-
(F(3,10) = [48.6633], p = 0.0000), (F(3,10) = [136.7881], perature, and pH value of lake water before and after filtra-
p = 0.0000), (F(3,10) = [62.3271], p = 0.0000) and tion process. The average of turbidity, temperature, and pH
(F(3,10) = [466.1869], p = 0.0000) respectively. From the for lake water before filtration is 181.29 NTU, 30.32 °C

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Fig. 11  Turbidity levels, pH value and temperature of tap water for


day one and day two Fig. 12  Comparison of water quality parameters for unfiltered and fil-
tered lake water

and 9.09 respectively while the average of turbidity, tem-


perature, and pH for lake water after filtration are 16.91 samples with small fluctuation. Higher temperature of the
NTU, 29.43 °C and 7.34 respectively. Figure 13 shows the filtered river water than the unfiltered river water is attrib-
turbidity, temperature, and pH of river water before and uted to the less mud and soil in the samples and surround-
after filtration process. The average of turbidity, tempera- ing temperature of the filter.
ture, and pH for river water before filtration is 77.00 NTU, Many studies have been done to improve existing water
28.18 °C and 8.09 respectively while the mean values of quality monitoring systems. Kumar et al. (2020) developed
turbidity, temperature, and pH for river water after filtra- a water quality system measuring pH, conductivity, tem-
tion are 24.22 NTU, 29.5 °C and 7.52 respectively. perature and turbidity which allowed real time monitor-
For both lake and river water samples, the turbidity ing. Demetillo et al. (2019) developed a system for moni-
level decreases after the water samples go through filtra- toring water quality in a large aquatic area highlighting
tion process. It proves that the water filtration process suc- the usage of the wireless sensor network (WSN). Pasika
cessfully provides better quality of water. Meanwhile, the et al. (2020) applied arduino microcontroller unit (MCU)
pH values for lake and river water after filtration system and interfaced with several physical water parameter sen-
are neutral. The system filters unwanted particles in the sors to develop a smart water quality monitoring system
sample such as mud and soil which are the main contribu- with cost-effective using IoT. User can monitor the water
tors for high turbidity and pH values. Some abnormal pH quality using ThingSpeak platform where data obtained
values of river sample after filtration are detected due to from the system is sent to cloud. However, most of the
sensor sensitivity as the electrode of the pH sensor is very studies do not analyze the data and do comparison with
susceptible to interference. The temperature of the lake the national and international standard. Thus, our study
sample after filtration is slightly lower than the unfiltered is important due to reliable data that can become a good
reference to the Malaysia government.

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3798 International Journal of Environmental Science and Technology (2023) 20:3789–3800

samples prove that the filtration system is crucially needed


for the household use. Tap water shows the highest electri-
cal conductivity and oxidation–reduction potential due to
chlorine that is used for treating the water. The data analy-
sis is done using box plot and one-way ANOVA test. The
ANOVA test shows that the sensing parameters can be used
to monitor water quality. The ThingSpeak application gives
real-time and continuous water quality monitoring system.
The research outcome is important to analyze water quality
in Malaysia before it can be safely used by consumers. The
system can be upgraded using high endurance and capac-
ity of microcontroller and sensors. Then, it can be applied
in the groundwater source or tank at home. We believe the
proposed system can assist Malaysia government in closely
monitor physical parameters of water quality and indirectly
mitigate water pollution issues.

Supplementary Information  The online version contains supplemen-


tary material available at https://d​ oi.o​ rg/1​ 0.1​ 007/s​ 13762-0​ 22-0​ 4192-x.

Acknowledgements  We acknowledge Ministry of Education Malay-


sia under FRGS grant (FRGS/1/2021/WAB02/USIM/02/1), Uni-
versiti Sains Islam Malaysia (USIM) under matching grant (USIM/
MG/MMU-PPKMT-ZDA/FKAB/SEPADAN-S/70822) and Faculty
of Engineering and Built Environment (FKAB) for the funding and
support.

Author contributions  The experiment was done by Nur Afiqah with


Fig. 13  Comparison of water quality parameters for unfiltered and fil- help from Muhammad Hakim. Wan Zakiah, Irneza and Juliza contrib-
tered river water ute to literature review and discussion.

Funding  Funding for this project is provided by Ministry of


Conclusion Higher Education, Malaysia under Fundamental Research Grant
Scheme (FRGS) (grant code: FRGS/1/2021/WAB02/USIM/02/1)
In conclusion, water pollution is a detrimental issue that and Universiti Sains Islam Malaysia  (matching grant:USIM/MG/
leads to water cut, health problem and a threat to aquatic life. MMU-PPKMT-ZDA/FKAB/SEPADAN-S/70822).
Monitoring water quality is important to control water pol-
Data availability  All data are presented in the manuscript.
lution. Here, water quality monitoring and filtration system
was designed using Proteus software. Arduino was used as Code availability  The coding will be provided if needed.
the main controller and five sensors were applied to detect
physical parameters of water to monitor water quality. The Declarations 
data is analyzed based on three types of water samples, tap
water, lake and river in Nilai, Negeri Sembilan, Malaysia. Conflict of interests  The authors declare that they have no competing
The purpose of this research is to investigate and monitor the interests.
turbidity level, pH value, temperature, electrical conductiv-
Consent to participate  Not applicable.
ity and oxidation–reduction potential of three different types
of water resources in Malaysia. The study shows that tap Consent for publication  Not appplicable.
water that is supplied to the household, has the safe range
of turbidity and pH. The filtered lake and river water which Ethics approval  Not appplicable.
give lower turbidity and neutral pH values than the unfiltered

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International Journal of Environmental Science and Technology (2023) 20:3789–3800 3799

References Huron river watershed council (2013) conductivity the activity.


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