The Municipality of Celorico de Basto, in Braga District in Portugal, takes the health and wellbeing of citizens and visitors very seriously. This includes ensuring that leisure facilities such as swimming pools are safe and healthy for swimmers. In August, the pioneering municipality became the first in Portugal to pilot the use of new sensing and artificial intelligence (AI) technologies to monitor and improve water conditions in of one of their swimming pools.

The pilot was conducted with local energy and water experts Filotipo Lda, who monitor and manage the pool in real-time using technology provided by their partners UnifAI Technology Ltd.

Traditionally, swimming pool water is tested manually for a small number of chemicals such as chlorine. With advances in technology from new companies such as UnifAI, it is now possible to continuously monitor the quality of the water remotely for a larger number of variables, to ensure that the water is safe and healthy with the right balance of chemicals. Using artificial intelligence, it is even possible to determine and avoid the risk of potentially harmful bacteria in the pool.

Eng. Artur Cardoso from Department of Urban and Maintenance Services of Celorico de Basto Municipality (Divisão de Serviços Urbanos e Manutenção) said, "The quality of water in our swimming pools is very important to us, and we are delighted to be the first pool in Portugal to use innovative technologies to help us improve the water quality in our swimming pools, and to ensure a safe and pleasant experience for swimmers. We are proud to be the first swimming pool in Portugal to adopt this technology. This pilot was successful, and we believe it demonstrates our commitment to the safety of our citizens.”

Eng. Jorge Roxo the COO from Filotipo said, “We are delighted to be helping pools across Portugal improve the experience for their users. We are grateful to the team at Celorico de Basto for their commitment to caring for their citizens and visitors, and together we have already seen the benefits this technology can deliver by giving us a real-time picture of the quality of the water."

Nuno Silva from UnifAI Technology said, “Monitoring and maintaining healthy water is a complex problem, and without proper care many swimming pools around the world can contain potentially harmful bacteria. We use technology and advanced AI to simplify the problems with water management, so we can help professionals like Filotipo and those that are responsible for operating safe swimming pools, like the Municipality of Celorico de Basto, to give their users a safe and fun environment to enjoy swimming”.

Following the successful pilot, this new technology will be rolled out across additional swimming pools in the municipality and beyond.

For further information, contact Jorge Roxo: jorge.roxo@filotipo.com