Keeping UAE Swimming Pools Clean with the help of AI

Imdaad’s digital transformation has extended to swimming pools where the latest technology is helping keep water clean and safe. Real-time sensors make remote monitoring hugely efficient and effective with the help of AI analysis. Here’s what you need to know.

The Importance of Water Quality in UAE Pools

It’s understandable why pools are widespread in the UAE. The year-round warm climate increases both the demand for pool access and the economic rationale for building pools. With no off-season to speak of, a pool in the UAE gets far more use than in many countries. While many people have private pools, access to communal pools is a key selling point for many communities and apartment blocks.

If pools aren’t kept clean, there’s an increased risk of water-borne diseases and illnesses. The risk is compounded in communal pools where having more users increases both the likelihood of infection or hygiene problems and the number of people affected. Conditions like Legionnaire’s disease are fairly well known, but the most common pool-related illness is Cryptosporiodisis, a particularly unpleasant parasite.

Outbreaks of illness can seriously damage the reputation of a hotel, community, or public authority. Even if the health risks don’t materialise, unclean water can be visually off-putting and ruin any sense of luxury or relaxation. That helps explain a boom in commercial cleaning companies in the UAE.

The Ignite Shield Solution

Imdaad is tackling pool hygiene head-on by using the Ignite Shield technology from Disrupt-X in the pools it manages.

Ignite Shield is a wide-ranging program of connected sensor technologies with monitoring and analysis --part of the much talked about “Internet of Things”. This includes monitoring indoor and outdoor air quality and water infrastructure, for example assessing water pressure to detect leaks. 

Water quality monitoring fits into this range perfectly, allowing constant analysis that would otherwise require time and labour-intensive manual checks. This data can also help operators determine their level of need for swimming pool cleaning services and check they are being delivered effectively. 

As with all of Ignite Shield, water quality monitoring is easily scalable: it can work effectively for anything from a single facility to city-wide analysis. It’s readily configurable to send water quality alerts by SMS, email, or WhatsApp, as well as through a dedicated dashboard.

The system also includes AI-powered machine learning and analysis to spot trends and potential dangers. It can even identify early warning signals of potential risks that human operators don’t currently check for, increasing the likelihood of fixing problems before they cause damage.

While there’s a lot of excitement about this big-picture element, particularly the possibilities for government authorities to oversee large-scale infrastructure, this solution does not overlook the on-site practicalities. The sensor equipment includes long-life batteries that can run for up to seven years and send updates through the latest communication protocols. That means much longer periods without the need to replace or upgrade equipment, something that saves disruption and boosts sustainability.

It’s even possible to use the monitoring to automate the schedules of a robotic pool cleaner: think of it as AI pool cleaning!

Making A Splash

One day the Internet of Things approach to data gathering and monitoring will be seen as the norm. Imdaad is particularly proud that the product manufacturer has gone on record saying its adoption of Ignite shield for pool monitoring sets an example that brings that day closer.

Maintaining swimming pool water quality to improve health and safety is both a moral and practical duty. Unclean pools which harbour disease not only harm users but can wreck the reputation of pool operators and the organizations that own the facilities. 

They can also lead to significant regulatory problems. For example, it’s now 10 years since Abu Dhabi introduced fines for breaching water quality rules, with spot checks by public health officials.

Many of us think of infrastructure as being roads, power grids and communications networks, but swimming pools are a part of the UAE’s infrastructure that many citizens take for granted. Imdaad is leading the way in using technology to make sure those pools remain safe, healthy, and a pleasure to use.