About the Problem of Water overflow in tanks

TEAM 'NOVA decided to go with the idea of building a Water level Alert Device to solve the common problem of water overflowing from tanks in homes during pumping.

The Problem  

The Problem of water overflowing from tanks while pumping is a very common and annoying problem in both urban and rural areas. This common problem causes other undesirable problems like

• Flooding as a result of the overflowing water which may be excess in some cases running into drainage systems.
• Damage of the structure on which the tank is mounted on. Continuous water spill on the structure would weaken them over time especially in rural communities where wood is used as the support.
• Wastage of Valuable water needed in rural communities where most houses depend on a single tank for water supply
• Waste of Electrical power and increase in power bills as a result of extended periods of pumping after tank is full
• User inconvenience. Owners of bore holes would have to patiently watch the tank to prevent overflow 

A member of TEAM 'NOVA also interviewed random people of the problem of overflowing water in tanks and surprisingly everyone that was interviewed confirmed that it is a general and annoying problem faced  in their homes and communities. A particular person that was asked about the problem lamented about how tank overflow has caused various occurrences of flooding on the streets where he resides and how he has to patiently watch the tank for overflow even if some water would have already spilled before he goes to put off the pumping machine.

                                             The Solution

TEAM 'NOVA decided to come up with a device that detects the level of water in the tank at particularly the low level(tank almost empty) and the high level(tank almost full) and it gives an audio visual indication when the water level rises towards the top of the tank so that the water pump can be switched off to prevent the overflow.This would solve the problem of the water overflowing from the tank and also solve the problem of user inconvenience

Details of the device, how it works, materials needed to build it and how our design and cost compares to other alternative devices would be discussed in the next post.