Manila Bay Coastal Strategy: Environmental Management Bureau commissions four brand new water quality monitoring stations using Proteus probes

Manila Bay Coastal Strategy: Environmental Management Bureau commissions four brand new water quality monitoring stations using Proteus probes

“Manila Bay- reflective of God’s glory-is a clean, safe, wholesome and productive ecosystem, a centre of socioeconomic development, and a natural heritage nurtured by genuine Filipino values with regard to better quality of life for the present and future generations”
- The vision for Manila Bay as outlined by various stakeholders.

The link to the Operational Plan for the Manila Bay Coastal Strategy can be found here: (http://www.pemsea.org/sites/default/files/manilabay-opmbcs.pdf)

This Proteus case study is was produced courtesy of BP Integrated Technologies.

Manila, Philippines -The Environmental Management Bureau of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources in partnership with BP Integrated Technologies, Inc. recently acquired 4 Proteus Multi-probes for real-time water quality monitoring. BP Integrated Technologies, Inc is a technology and solutions provider that design bespoke solutions for their client’s environmental monitoring needs. They pride themselves on delivering high quality and reliable services to their clients. They have been distributors for Proteus in the Philippines since early 2019.

Water quality monitoring is an important component of the Government-led initiative to rehabilitate the Manila Bay coastal area. The initiative to clean-up Manila Bay is a widespread, inter-disciplinary effort involving multiple authoritative bodes including the UNDP-GEF and the Regional Programme on Building Partnerships in Environmental Management for the Seas of East Asia (PEMSEA).  The Plan consists of five key goals of which “Improvement of water quality” and “Conservation of biological resources” are both named.

Manila Bay is officially classified as Class SB waters or marine waters for contact recreation. However, the Philippine Government is still undertaking measures to upgrade the Bay’s water quality, according to criteria and make the bay safe for swimming, skin-diving and other forms of contact recreation.

Faecal coliforms are the key parameter of interest in the water quality monitoring system, as they indicate the presence of pathogens that may cause serious illnesses to people in contact with the water. The probes are also monitoring pH, temperature, DO, Electrical Conductivity, TSS, ORP and turbidity as complementary water quality parameters.

The Proteus can be connected to a variety of data acquisition tools and in this project, it is connected to a cloud based GPRS modem. The data collected is then sent to a specialist app, developed by BPIT, for access to all of those involved in the project (Image). The app contains outputs for all the different water quality stations, allowing the station of interest to be selected. The app updates in real-time after the readings are taken and the past 24-hour trends can be viewed for each parameter.

The real-time water quality monitoring system’s major role is to assess the effectiveness of the government’s ongoing action plan in the rehabilitation of Manila Bay. The goal is effective, long-term monitoring which helps assess and mitigate sources of faecal pollution into Manila Bay, as well as real-time information as to the suitability of the water for bathing.