Project Background

Extreme situations as low water levels or severe storms, affect the water quality of rivers and streams due to the large amount of sediments and materials dragged by surface runoff. The surface water supply sources employed by the city of Panama, do not escape from this situation. Therefore, authorities are forced to respond instead of prevents this type of situation and the Universidad Tecnológica de Panamá (UTP), through the Centro de Investigaciones Hidráulicas e Hidrotécnicas (CIHH) seeks to determine the level of contamination suffered by these sources.

 

In the metropolitan area there are four water intake sites (Cabra River, Pacora River, Alajuela Lake and Miraflores Lake).  In this research, Automatic water samplers will be placed at points close to the water intakes for the Cabra and Pacora river water supply treatment plants. Employing remote sensors; water samples will be taken  only during the occurrence of extreme rainfall events. Additionally, it is expected to measure physical water parameters such as pH, temperature, conductivity and dissolved oxygen.

 

This project will have the collaboration of Dr. Chad Jafvert (Civil Engineering School, Purdue University, Indiana, USA), who developed a similar project  to the Project COL07-036, but applied to mangroves built (“Wireless Monitoring of Purdue’s Constructed Wetlands), and funded by the United States Geological Society (USGS).

 

The results obtained in this research will be extremely useful to institutions like  IDAAN, ANAM; MINSA and ACP.