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Low-Cost Water Pollution Spectrometer for Monitoring Map

Do-yeon Pi of PiQuant in the Republic of Korea is developing a low-cost spectroscopic device and monitoring system, the Water Scanner, that can be nationally deployed to rapidly detect and map Escherichia coli contamination in drinking water in low-resource settings. Water pollution causes up to 90% of diarrheal diseases, which kill 500,000 children under the age of five each year. Water quality is currently measured using spectroscopic devices that are expensive and time-consuming. In Phase I, they developed a new device incorporating a noise-canceling algorithm that can accurately measure water quality within an hour at 1% of the cost of traditional devices. They also set up a GIS-based monitoring system to create water quality maps that enable a rapid response to any contamination. In Phase II, they will finalize the development and validation of their technology, and work towards commercialization in India and Vietnam.

More information about Innovation for WASH in Urban Settings (Round 22)

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