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

全世界仍有18亿人饮用受粪便污染的水，每年有50.2万人死于供水不足引起的腹泻，特别是五岁以下儿童。饮用水的粪便污染仍然是发展中国家婴儿死亡的主要原因。目前迫切需要开发一种快速检测饮用水中粪便污染的方法，这种方法可以由缺乏服务的城市和农村环境中的非专家进行。在该项目中，适用于饮用水质量快速评估的颠覆性光学传感器技术将由传感器开发商和制造商Liquid Vision Innovation与英国地质调查局和Trace2o合作开发。英国地质调查局是一家在饮用水质量现场调查方面拥有丰富经验的研究机构，Trace2o是一家环境测试技术的制造商和全球供应商。这种创新的光学传感器将在实验室进行测试，并在英国进行现场验证。该项目的成果，包括低成本、易于使用的传感器原型，最终将成为发展中国家和发达国家监测水质的工具。在发达国家，由于目前采用的不频繁的抓取采样受到限制，无法提供足够快速或实时的污染警报，因此污染水的暴发仍然是经常发生的。2015年8月，兰开夏郡爆发隐孢子虫疫情，导致70万人三周无法饮用自来水，如果联合公用事业公司在自来水进入公共供应之前更早检测到污染，就可以避免这一事件。在发展中国家，项目成果将使更大规模的水质调查成为可能，为最终用户提供关于水质的即时反馈，并促进全球水、环境卫生和个人卫生的长期改善。这些改进是联合国可持续发展目标(SDGs)所必需的。

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).