Emerging IoT-Spectroscopy Methods for Targeted Water Pollutants in Household Point-of-Use (POUs) Environments

Sustaining water quality is critical in order to avoid any harmful health consequences on end-user consumers. The detection of microbial impurities at the household level is the foundation of water security. Water quality is now monitored only at water utilities of infrastructure, such as water treatment facilities or reservoirs. This research provides first-hand scientific understanding of microbial composition presence in Malaysia's household point-of-use (POUs) water supply influenced by seasonal fluctuation, standstill periods and flow dynamics by using NIR-Raman spectroscopic technique. According to the findings, 20% of water sample were contaminated by pathogenic bacteria, which are Legionella and Salmonella cells. A comparison of the spectra reveals significant signature peaks (420 cm-1 to 1800 cm-1) including species-specific bands. This demonstrates the importance of regularly monitoring POUs water quality to provide safe and clean water supply to homeowners. Conventional Raman spectroscopy, up-to-date is no longer suited for real-time monitoring. Therefore, this study introduced an alternative micro-spectrometer to give a rapid and sustainable way for monitoring POUs water quality. Assessing microbiological threats in water supply becomes more reliable and efficient by leveraging IoT protocols.