DEMYSTIFYING SUSTAINABLE GROUNDWATER SYSTEM WITH BIG DATA: AN INTEGRATED DIGITAL WATER PLATFORM FOR ENSURING DRINKING WATER SAFETY

Groundwater system is a complex and ambiguous system, often requires detailed understanding of subsurface geography and hydro-geology for sustainable water supply. In last few decades, dependencies on groundwater for drinking, agriculture and industrial usages have increased manifold. Shallow tubewells have been used for provision of drinking water to a large population in Indian subcontinent. Unfortunately these aquifers are affected by diverse suite of geogenic as well as microbial contaminants which need regular monitoring and proper treatment to meet the health based targets for drinking water supply. A holistic water safety plan ensures safe drinking water to all by effective planning, monitoring and control of water sources. Digital transformation in water sector has been recognized as one of the most important drivers to accelerate and tracking the progress towards SDG 6. Digital technologies are critical to transform the global water systems and help utilities to curb pressing challenges such as water shortage, leakages in water distribution networks, and geogenic and microbial contamination of water. Technologies like Internet of Things (IOT), connected sensors, Artificial Intelligence (AI), Machine Learning (ML), Blockchain and several otheretc. play a pivotal role in enabling the digital transformation in water. Machine learning and deep learning techniques help to develop cognitive solutions and hydrogeological models. We generate huge data pipeline consisting of both primary and secondary data, often referred to as Big data, becoming a soft asset for a country for architecting drinking water safety plan. The digital platform ASMITAS helps to achieve safe groundwater interventions through an aggregation of data system. ASMITAS consists of a data aggregation system for identifying safe sources of water through systematically obtained scientific data from the field and the laboratory. To put it broadly, it is a robust decision system, which uses advanced analytics and Machine Learning (ML). ASMITAS has been successfully deployed in Bangladesh for enhancing private sector capacity and used as decision-making tools for various stakeholders. The platform uses mobile application for collecting key data about lithologs, geospatial information for arsenic and cloud based solution for holistic arsenic risk management. ASMITAS has been successfully integrated with advanced geological modelling tool GeoGIS for aquifer delineation and data visualization.