Irish scientists call for more water monitoring devices to track pollution in real-time

Irish scientists at Dublin City University (DCU) have called for more water monitoring devices to track pollution in real-time, following a recent E coli contamination detected off the coastlines of Cork and Galway.

The contamination in the Irish coastal towns led to beaches being closed in the area, which has prompted the scientists to call for more low-cost monitoring devices. Professor Fiona Regan, an environmental scientist at DCU, said there aren't any bacterial water devices in Ireland at the minute.

In order to alert the scientists to future water pollution concerns, Ms Regan has called for water quality monitoring systems which will also help to carry out more sophisticated bacterial analysis before informing the public.

"We should have these low-cost sensors all over the coastline and in our rivers," Ms Regan believes. Thankfully, technology is now being developed at the University to build low cost devices which could make this dream plausible. Additionally, the devices will not be placed anywhere and everywhere, they will be strategically utilised in the right areas under the right conditions.

One such device which has been developed by the Marine Institute is the SmartBay buoy which is positioned off the coast of Galway. "We redeployed that system in June. We placed a sensor on it to test it out in the field and to collect data. It's an optical sensor for water-quality monitoring," explained Ms Regan.

She was speaking ahead of the Technology Touchdown symposium on marine pollution and sensing technology hosted by DCU in conjunction with the University of Notre Dame. The symposium has been scheduled to coincide with the Navy-Notre Dame American football game that's taking place in the Aviva stadium in Dublin at the weekend.

The conference has been designed to allow both universities to share research ideas around environmental challenges and sensing technology.

Posted by Joseph Hutton