A network of sensors in Flemish waters provides real-time insight into changes in water quality. ‘This allows us to measure quantitatively both upstream and downstream.’

It seems so commonplace, the water flowing through rivers and canals in the Low Countries. But the dry spells of recent years have forced us to think more about that water and its quality. The dry summers of 2017 and 2018, for example, led to serious salination and drought problems in West Flanders. This prompted the Flemish government to take action: it needed a better and more detailed understanding of water quality.

‘An area-based approach is really necessary’

‘There needed to be a better overall view, a system that looked ahead predictively,’ says Marcel Zevenbergen, programme manager emerging sensors at research centre imec in Eindhoven and Wageningen. Zevenbergen is a member of the imec team at the Internet of Water Flanders (IoW) consortium. Research organisation VITO, water treatment company Aquafin, the Water Group and the Flemish Environment Agency (VMM) are also participating in it. ‘The government no longer wants to be behind the times, but to measure and collect data in real time so that you can anticipate and take countermeasures. That gave rise to the creation of IoW.’ According to Zevenbergen, the timing worked out well: when the issue became increasingly pressing, new, relevant technology was already awaiting at imec, which could form the basis for a water sensor.