Real-time water quality monitoring for Homeland communities

Research Summary

Access to safe and reliable drinking water is a fundamental human right, yet remote Indigenous Homeland communities continue to face significant challenges achieving this basic standard. Across WA, health violations of Australian Drinking Water Guidelines for nitrate and uranium have been more frequent in recent years, having been linked to chronic kidney disease, diabetes, blue baby syndrome, and cancers. Furthermore, poor taste and appearance of drinking water drives a preference for unhealthy alternatives, and excessive hardness degrades infrastructure. These create a disproportionate health burden for First Nations peoples, as well as unnecessary social and economic strain. Aligning with recommended pathways to SDGs 6 and 10, and closing the gap for Indigenous Australians, this project works towards the development of a real-time, remote, water quality monitoring platform for application to remote Homeland communities.

This will be done by applying an evaluation framework to options for existing systems and technologies, within the context of a case study community, Wakathuni. These findings will contribute to recommendations, and the development of an applicable system. Contrasting systems, in terms of both requirements and performance, will also be evaluated, using a consistent framework incorporating scenario and sensitivity analyses. This will ensure that recommendations account for the expected range of available resources and water quality conditions.

An existing system, developed by EcoDetection, uses capillary electrophoresis to simultaneously measure a variety of ionic species, including sulphate, nitrate, carbonate, fluoride, and many others, that may be used to infer and monitor changes to water quality parameters. The technology works by accelerating ions via application of an electromagnetic field, and measuring the speed at which ionic species migrate through a capillary. The system includes telemetry, data visualisation, and can be integrated with auxiliary devices. It will be trialed in Wakathuni, in 2025, providing data contributing to this project, and establishing context of the local water quality.

By improving the quality and accessibility of data, this will drive community engagement, and innovation of technologies and practices. Transparent data not only grants community members agency to enforce resolution of water quality issues, improving accountability and trust, but creates a sense of ownership and responsibility for water provision, which drives capacity building within the community. In addition to directly reducing the labour and cost requirements for water quality monitoring, a remote system can provide the data necessary for effective risk evaluations of communities, enabling more equitable distribution of resources and services. Improved breadth and quality of data serves also to facilitate research and innovation, generating momentum for further improvements.

Figure 1: Process flow diagram, for example remote water quality monitoring system – EcoDetection

Author

Student: Raymond Fielden, Murdoch University, Environmental Engineering Honours Thesis, TBC 31st July 2025
Email: raymondfielden@gmail.com
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/raymond-fielden-357aaa31a/
Phone: 0424 900 639

Principle supervisor: Dr Linda Li    
Co-supervisors: A/Prof Martin Anda, A/Prof Roz Walker