The Innovation, Technological Development, and Internet of Things Applications Center (CIIoT) at Tec de Monterrey developed an original platform for measuring water quality. It’s called “Internet of Water“, a technological platform based on the Internet of Things (IoT).
The system monitors rivers, lakes, lagoons, and streams, measuring the levels of contaminants present in them.
The educational institution that developed the system is the number one Mexican university in engineering and technology, according to the QS World Ranking 2025.
How the innovative water quality meter works
This takes place in the context of a serious water pollution problem in Mexico: 60% of drinking water is contaminated. According to data from the National Water Quality Measurement Network (RENAMECA), 59.1% of surface water bodies, such as rivers, streams, lakes, and coastal areas, show some degree of contamination.
Only 40.9% meet quality standards that guarantee effective access to drinking water.
Internet of Water integrates sensors specifically designed to measure a variety of substances present in the water, making it a sophisticated monitoring system with a communication gateway.
It sends data to antennas for transmission to a database, solar panels that power low-consumption lithium batteries, and buoys that keep the device afloat.
How to get Internet of Water
Currently commercialized through AIoT4All, a startup from Tec de Monterrey focused on developing technological products with artificial intelligence.
The university collaborated with funding in the form of seed capital and provides spaces for research and operation. The specialized team was developed with funds from ITESM and the Government of the State of Jalisco.
“This floating platform houses sensors that measure various parameters to determine water quality, currently evaluating 25 parameters with eight different variables,” explained Alfredo Figarola, professor at Tec de Monterrey at Campus Guadalajara and leader of CIIoT.
The sensors analyze parameters such as dissolved oxygen, turbidity, pH, temperature, dissolved solids, and conductivity.
As well as contaminants like lead, cadmium, phosphates, and values such as chemical oxygen demand (COD) and biological oxygen demand (BOD), among many others.
The origin of Internet of Water
The project emerged as an initiative of the government of the state of Jalisco to assess the conditions of the Río Grande de Santiago, declared in 2020 as the most contaminated tributary in the country.
How the innovation works.
The government contacted Professor Figarola to develop a device that could automatically measure dissolved contaminants. Besides providing objective information for remediation decisions.
The CIIoT team conducted thorough research and designed a platform that monitors the river using their expertise in IoT (Internet of Things) technologies.
Once the first prototype was developed, real-world concept tests were carried out, facing various challenges.
One of the main challenges was the lack of Internet connection along the river, so they had to find ways for the platform to communicate with the antennas to transmit the collected information.
For this, a LoRa Gateway (low range) was configured to emit a signal to a microcontroller that could receive and process the data and store it in a database.
Four years after the original idea, the current version has overcome these challenges. They highlighted that it is much more advanced and functional than the initial prototype.
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