Low-Cost Water Sensors and Detection Accuracy in Village Well Monitoring

Abstract

Access to safe and reliable drinking water remains a critical challenge in rural and decentralized communities worldwide, where traditional laboratory based water quality monitoring is frequently economically unfeasible and logistically impractical. This paper presents a comprehensive experimental analysis of low cost water quality sensors deployed in village well environments to determine their detection accuracy, long term reliability, and practical viability. The study systematically evaluates a suite of affordable sensors measuring key physicochemical parameters, including potential of hydrogen, turbidity, electrical conductivity, and temperature. By benchmarking these low cost alternatives against industrial grade instrumentation and standard laboratory titration methods, this research identifies the performance boundaries and inherent limitations of commercial off the shelf sensor modules. The experimental methodology encompasses rigorous pre deployment calibration processes, a multi week field deployment in active village wells, and continuous high frequency data acquisition. Analytical results indicate that while temperature and electrical conductivity sensors maintain acceptable accuracy margins over extended periods, optical turbidity and electrochemical potential of hydrogen sensors are highly susceptible to biofouling, signal drift, and environmental interference. These findings demonstrate that although low cost sensor networks offer unprecedented opportunities for high temporal resolution monitoring in resource constrained settings, their deployment necessitates robust algorithmic error correction, frequent recalibration protocols, and careful hardware design to ensure data integrity.