Development of a low-cost and portable optical sensor for the instantaneous indication of pathogens in drinking water

Worldwide, 1.8 billion people still drink faecally contaminated water and there are 502,000 deaths per year from diarrhoea caused by inadequate water supply, particularly affecting children under five years old. Faecal contamination of drinking water remains the major cause of infant mortality in developing countries. There is currently an urgent requirement for the development of a rapid method for the detection of faecal contamination in drinking water, which may be performed by non-specialists in urban and rural environments lacking services. In this project, disruptive optical sensor technology suitable for the rapid assessment of drinking water quality will be developed by a sensor developer and manufacturer, Liquid Vision Innovation, in collaboration with the British Geological Survey, a research organisation with significant experience in field surveys of drinking water quality, and Trace2o, a manufacturer and global supplier of environmental-testing technologies. The innovative optical sensor will be tested in the laboratory and field-validated in the UK. The project outcomes, including a low-cost, easy-to-use sensor prototype, will ultimately be a tool for monitoring water quality in both developing and developed countries. In developed countries, contaminated water outbreaks are still a regular occurrence as a result of limitations in currently applied infrequent grab sampling, which cannot provide a sufficiently rapid or real-time contamination alert. A cryptosporidium outbreak that left 700,000 people in Lancashire unable to drink tap water for three weeks in August 2015 could have been avoided if United Utilities had detected the contamination earlier, before the water entered public supply. In developing countries, the project outcomes will enable larger scale surveys of water quality, providing immediate feedback on water quality for end users, and empowering long-term improvements in global water, sanitation and hygiene. These improvements are necessitated by the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).