SEWAT - Abstract

The essential resource drinking water has to comply with microbiological and chemical quality criteria in order to be safe for consumption. The provision of safe drinking water is a major challenge, especially in crisis and disaster situations. Military as well as civilian organizations are prepared to provide and operate mobile drinking water treatment plants in case of failure or lack of regular drinking water infrastructure. The methods for monitoring microbiological water quality required by regulations usually take at least a day from sampling to result. This is absolutely insufficient for monitoring and controlling the treatment processes.

The SEWAT (Save and Efficient WAter Treatment) project aims to test several potential methods for real-time monitoring of microbiological and physico-chemical water quality. The methods should (i) be able to detect contamination and process deficiencies in a timely, reliable, and automated manner, and (ii) operate with low maintenance under the challenging field and deployment conditions. A "from-source-to-tap" approach will be employed, monitoring water quality from raw water through treatment steps to bottling and storage.

Automated flow cytometry, enzyme activity-based detection of bacterial activity, spectrometric methods for online detection of chemical contaminants, and rapid molecular diagnostic tests for bacterial faecal indicators and pathogens will be used. In addition, the potential of modern microscopy and flow cytometry methods for rapid detection of virus particles will be explored. In parallel to these technical innovations, a social science study will investigate which factors influence the acceptance of treated drinking water in the consumers served and how appropriate measures can increase this level of acceptance.

The results of this project will demonstrate to operators of mobile water treatment plants in military and civilian (disaster) operations what role modern real-time analysis methods can play in process monitoring and quality control. In addition, the findings can also support quality assurance in conventional municipal water supplies and help make Austria's critical infrastructure more resilient and crisis-proof.