Computer science based solution for a water quality control laboratory management

Abstract

The National Office of Potable Water (ONEP) is a public body in charge of the production, control and distribution of potable water throughout the Kingdom of Morocco. The ONEP Central Laboratory and a network of 46 decentralised laboratories are in charge of monitoring the quality of produced and distributed water, as well as pollution control of resources intended for drinking water production. In order to perform this activity, ONEP laboratories follow a variety of sampling points and type of samples (treated water, raw water, waste water, sludge from sewage works, treatment reagents, etc.) depending on the objective of control. The variety of biological and physicochemical analyses as well as the significant number of data generated by ONEP laboratories has speedily imposed the need for a data computer management. The ONEP Central Laboratory has developed a computer-based application for laboratory management (GDAL). This application was devised and adopted to satisfy the present and future needs of the Central Laboratory. The pro-software was developed under Power Builder within windows environment (NT and 95). It manages more than 3500 sampling sites throughout Morocco, that is more than 30,000 samples or 1 million items of analytical data, and enables the editing of more than 20 types of analytical reports. This system is intended for 21 users simultaneously and allows the management of analytical data of the central and decentralised laboratories. The system is developed into modules covering all sample life cycle which comprise (1) analysis campaign planning, (2) management of sample-taking missions, (3) samples reception, (4) analysis, (5) invoicing, (6) consultation and printing, (7) processing analytical data provided by the system. GDAL also comprises the laboratory administrative and stock management, and accounting. This application aims to: (a) enable each user to have access to the information about samples analysis in real time; (b) automate everyday tasks of the laboratory; (c) ensure the follow-up of all the information concerning the analysis from planning the sampling to editing the analytical report; (d) improve the accuracy of the results by automating the quality control procedures.