Author(s): Kwame Mensah, Aïssatou Diallo, Abdoulaye Harouna and Jean-Claude Koffi

Abstract: Access to safe drinking water remains a critical public health challenge in many rapidly urbanizing cities of sub-Saharan Africa, where sachet water has emerged as a widely consumed alternative to piped supplies. Despite its popularity, sachet water quality at the point-of-sale is highly variable and often compromised by inadequate treatment, poor handling, and prolonged exposure to unfavorable storage conditions. Conventional laboratory-based water quality testing methods are time-consuming, costly, and inaccessible for routine monitoring by vendors, regulators, and consumers. This research presents the design and conceptual framework of an IoT-enabled handheld tester for rapid assessment of sachet water quality at point-of-sale locations in Minna, Nigeria, with emphasis on device integration and wireless data transfer. The proposed system integrates low-cost physicochemical sensors for parameters such as pH, temperature, turbidity, and electrical conductivity with a microcontroller-based processing unit optimized for portable operation. Wireless communication is achieved using embedded Wi-Fi and cellular modules, enabling real-time transmission of test results to a centralized cloud platform for storage, visualization, and regulatory access. The device architecture prioritizes modularity, low power consumption, and ease of use, allowing non-specialists to perform on-site measurements with minimal training. By enabling geotagged data collection and temporal analysis, the system supports spatial mapping of water quality trends and early detection of contamination hotspots. The integration of Internet of Things technology into handheld water testing devices offers a scalable approach to strengthening decentralized water quality surveillance and improving transparency within the sachet water supply chain. The proposed framework demonstrates the potential of digital tools to bridge gaps between informal water markets and public health oversight, contributing to improved consumer safety and evidence-based decision-making. Overall, this research highlights how IoT-enabled point-of-sale testing can complement existing regulatory mechanisms and enhance community-level monitoring of drinking water quality.

DOI: 10.22271/27078221.2026.v7.i1a.100

Pages: 24-28 | Views: 28 | Downloads: 6

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