SAFEWATER Devices Translation and Implementation (SAFEWATER Translate)

世界上约有20亿人通常饮用由于粪便污染而不安全的水，使他们面临霍乱、伤寒和其他腹泻病等水传播疾病的高风险。腹泻是5岁以下儿童死亡的主要原因之一，58%的腹泻相关疾病是由于无法获得安全饮用水、环境卫生和个人卫生造成的。目前迫切需要开发和部署能够轻松、快速地确定水源是否可安全饮用的技术。在GCRF SAFEWATER项目中，阿尔斯特大学一直在与哥伦比亚、墨西哥和巴西的合作伙伴合作开发物联网设备，这些设备可用于在没有微生物实验室或熟练工作人员的情况下确定农村社区水中的微生物质量。alpha原型的初步结果非常有希望，我们需要加速这项技术的发展，以便它可以在其他发展中地区大规模实施，以确定水质。SAFEWATER翻译项目将开发Beta阶段的原型，并与我们目前的SAFEWATER合作伙伴在巴西、哥伦比亚和墨西哥进行测试。我们还将把这项技术转化为埃塞俄比亚、马拉维和尼泊尔的测试。在18个月结束时，我们的目标是在没有实验室或熟练工作人员的情况下，为全球偏远地区的水质监测提供一个强大的解决方案。我们还将探讨实施途径，考虑公平的伙伴关系，以及利用高科技解决方案产生真正影响的最有效途径，以保护地球上最脆弱的人群。

Around 2 billion people in the World commonly drink water that is not safe due to faecal contamination putting them at high risk of waterborne disease such as cholera, typhoid and other diarrhoeal diseases. Diarrhoea is one of the main causes of under-5 mortality, with 58% of diarrhoea-related diseases attributed to inadequate access to safe water, sanitation and hygiene. There is a real and urgent need to develop and deploy technologies that can easily and rapidly determine if water sources are safe to drink. In the GCRF SAFEWATER project, Ulster University has been working with partners in Colombia, Mexico and Brazil to develop IoT devices that can be used to determine the microbiological quality of water in rural communities, without access to microbiology labs or skilled staff. Initial results with alpha prototypes are very promising and we need to accelerate the development of this technology so it can be implemented at scale for the determination of water quality in other developing regions. The SAFEWATER Translate project will develop Beta phase prototypes and test these in Brazil, Colombia and Mexico with our current SAFEWATER partners. We will also translate the technology for testing in Ethiopia, Malawi and Nepal. At the end of 18 months we aim to have a robust solution to monitoring of water quality in remote regions of the globe without access to labs or skilled staff. We will also explore the pathways to implementation considering equitable partnerships and the most effective route to making a real impact with high tech solutions to protect the most vulnerable people on Earth.