Implementation of a Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition System for Water Treatment Plant Operations in Akwa Ibom State

Water treatment plants in Akwa Ibom State, South South Nigeria, often operate without centralized process monitoring infrastructure, leading to inefficient chemical dosing, delayed fault response, and inconsistent water quality output. This study presents the implementation of a supervisory control and data acquisition system for automating and centralizing the monitoring of key water treatment processes. The SCADA architecture integrates programmable logic controllers deployed at key process stations including coagulation, sedimentation, filtration, and chlorination, communicating with a central SCADA workstation via a Modbus RTU protocol over RS-485 serial links. Process variables including turbidity, flow rate, pressure, and chlorine residual are measured by field instruments and displayed on a real-time operator interface developed in Ignition SCADA software. Alarm management and historical data trending are configured for all critical parameters. The system was implemented at the Eket Water Corporation treatment facility, covering a plant capacity of 15 million litres per day. Following implementation, operator response time to process deviations improved from an average of 18 minutes to under 4 minutes. Chemical dosing precision improved by 23 percent, reducing reagent waste. Unplanned plant downtime decreased by 31 percent over a six-month post-implementation assessment period. A training programme for plant operators was developed and delivered as part of the project. The study provides a replicable SCADA implementation framework for water utility modernization across Nigerian states. Keywords: SCADA, water treatment, PLC, process monitoring, Akwa Ibom State