Smart Drain: Commissioning & Industrial IoT for a WIPO Global Award-Winning Flood Monitoring Solution
Executive Summary: Sanota served as the commissioning and industrial IoT integration partner for the Smart Drain flood monitoring project in Batapola, Ambalangoda, Sri Lanka. Selected among 10 global winners out of 780 applications across 95 countries at the 2025 WIPO Global Awards in Geneva, the system delivers real-time telemetry, automated water-level alerts, and solar-buffered cellular IoT monitoring.
Project Snapshot
- Initiative & Invention
- Smart Drain (Urban Inventors / Dr. Nadeesha Chandrasena)
- Sanota's Engineering Role
- Commissioning & Industrial IoT Integration Partner
- Location
- Batapola, Ambalangoda, Sri Lanka
- Recognition
- 2025 WIPO Global Awards Winner (Geneva)
- Hardware & Protocols
- Ultrasonic Depth Sensors, IP67 Telemetry Node, MQTT / HTTP, Solar MPPT Battery Management, GSM/GPRS
- Timeline & Status
- Commissioned in 2025 • Active Monitoring
The Challenge: Tropical Flash Floods & Blind Drainage Inundation
Batapola, located in the low-lying wetland belt of Ambalangoda in Sri Lanka's Southern Province, experiences heavy monsoon downpours that repeatedly submerge regional thoroughfares, local marketplaces, and roadside drainage infrastructure. Municipal response teams previously had no advance visibility into culvert siltation or rising backwaters until roadways were already waterlogged, stalling traffic and causing local economic disruption.
The solution demanded an autonomous, rugged, solar-powered field station capable of enduring torrential monsoon humidity, submergence-prone stormwater conditions, and intermittent cellular connectivity without requiring AC mains power.
Sanota's Engineering Contribution & IoT Commissioning
Working closely with project lead Dr. Nadeesha Chandrasena, Sanota engineered and commissioned the physical industrial IoT field integration:
- IP67 Harsh-Environment Telemetry Enclosure: Engineered a corrosion-proof, UV-stabilized enclosure mounted directly above storm culverts with anti-tamper brackets.
- Dual Ultrasonic & Hydrostatic Level Sensing: Calibrated non-contact ultrasonic transducers with temperature compensation algorithms to accurately gauge water heights even during turbulent surface flows.
- Solar MPPT Power & Ultra-Low-Power Wakeup: Designed a battery buffer system that allows the node to operate for 14 continuous overcast monsoon days while transmitting data at 5-minute intervals.
- Automated MQTT Cloud Broker & SMS Broadcast: Configured failover cloud ingestion pipelines with automated trigger alerts dispatched directly to regional disaster management officers.
Measurable Impact & Global Acclaim
Local authorities received clear advance warning before water overtopped the canal banks, enabling timely traffic diversion.
Signal filtering and wave-dampening math eliminated sensor noise caused by debris floating in drainage channels.
Operated completely off-grid throughout the wet season with zero battery depletion or field service trips required.
Showcased at the World Intellectual Property Organization headquarters in Geneva as a leading sustainable technology.
Engineering Specifications & Commissioning Parameters
| Parameter | Specification | Operational Benefit |
|---|---|---|
| Water Level Sensor | Ultrasonic Rangefinder (0.3m to 5.0m, ±2mm resolution) | Non-submerged, immune to corrosion from sewage and sludge |
| Telemetry Controller | Industrial Microcontroller with Low-Power Deep Sleep | <15μA standby draw ensures prolonged battery autonomy |
| Connectivity | Multi-band 2G/4G Cellular Modem with Fallback | Guarantees message delivery across remote rural Sri Lankan cell towers |
| Solar Generation | Monocrystalline PV Panel + LiFePO4 Cell with MPPT | Extended 2000+ cycle battery life under tropical ambient temperatures |
| Cloud Architecture | Encrypted MQTT to TimescaleDB & Grafana Dashboards | Sub-second telemetry ingestion with historical trend analytics |
Need Custom Industrial IoT, Telemetry, or Machinery Automation?
Whether you are developing a new smart environmental monitor, retrofitting factory machinery, or designing a custom PLC telemetry panel, our Moratuwa-trained engineers bring award-winning execution to your project.