A smart borehole water pumping system

Abstract

Sufficient water supply is one of the main success determining factors in livestock farming, hence a farmer should have a water borehole which can supply enough water for his animals. However, boreholes only hold a certain amount of water at their static levels and this water may not be enough for a farmer’s use. Hence farmers pump water into a reservoir and wait for the borehole to recharge then pump again later. Since boreholes have limited yield, farmers may not obtain enough water for their livestock at the first instance of pumping. If water is continuously pumped until a borehole is empty (dry running), air is sucked in instead and this leads to the borehole collapsing or damaging the pumping system. To remedy this, a water pumping system is developed consisting of a microcontroller, level sensors, a liquid crystal display, piezo buzzer and a pump. The system detects water level in the borehole and reservoir and operates the pump based on the sensed levels, it also calculates the yield of the borehole in realtime.