SAFEWATER Devices Translation and Implementation (SAFEWATER Translate)

世界上约有20亿人通常饮用不安全的水，因为粪便污染，使他们面临霍乱、伤寒和其他腹泻疾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%与腹泻有关的疾病归因于缺乏获得安全饮用水、环境卫生和个人卫生的机会。目前确实迫切需要开发和部署能够轻松、快速地确定水源是否可以安全饮用的技术。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，开发可用于确定农村社区水的微生物质量的物联网设备，而无需接触微生物实验室或熟练的工作人员。阿尔法原型的初步结果非常有希望，我们需要加快这项技术的发展，以便它可以在其他发展中地区的水质测定中大规模实施。SAFEWATER翻译项目将开发Beta阶段的原型，并与我们目前的SAFEWATER合作伙伴一起在巴西、哥伦比亚和墨西哥进行测试。我们还将翻译这项技术，以便在埃塞俄比亚、马拉维和尼泊尔进行测试。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，有一个强有力的解决方案来监测全球偏远地区的水质。我们还将探讨实施途径，考虑到公平的伙伴关系和以高科技解决方案产生实际影响的最有效途径，以保护地球上最脆弱的人。

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.