Project develops real-time technology to measure river pollution

The BactiQuick initiative could pave the way for a national early warning system accessible to anyone in the UK
BactiQuick taking samples at Bidwell Brook

Water pollution – caused by sewage discharges, agricultural run-off or other forms of contamination – poses significant environmental and health challenges to the UK’s waterways.
However, a new project aims to develop a fast way of identifying instances of river pollution and their sources, which could also pave the way for a national early warning system that alerts people of particular threats they might pose.
The BactiQuick initiative is being developed by Molendotech Ltd and the University of Plymouth, who between them have considerable expertise in catchment and river science and advanced water testing technologies. It will also involve South West Water, Friends of the Dart and other community groups.
Using Bidwell Brook, part of the River Dart catchment, as a natural laboratory, the project aims to develop and validate a portable test device that can be used by scientists, water companies and the general public to conduct rapid on-site water bacterial analysis. Any results can also, in turn, be linked to other monitoring data to predict levels of risk to river users.
Those behind the project hope that novel combination of monitoring techniques will enable citizen scientists and organisations to not only identify where pollution is occurring, but also any particular bacteria present and – as a result – the cause of the contamination.

The UK’s rivers and streams are important in many elements of our daily lives, from water supply to the health benefits of wild swimming. In recent years, more stringent assessment criteria have raised public awareness of pollution and increased demands for action.

However, it is often difficult to determine precisely when and where pollution is coming from, which poses challenges to management decisions. Pollution episodes can have knock-on effects locally and often for many kilometers downstream, and that is clearly something that urgently needs addressing. This project will hopefully provide us with new evidence bases to help do that, enhancing water quality within our rivers and streams in both the short and long term. 

Will BlakeProfessor Will Blake
Professor of Catchment Science

MolEndoTech BactiQuick sampler in use
MolEndoTech BactiQuick sampler in use
Testing kit being used for BactiQuick
Testing kit being used for BactiQuick
Funded by a grant of around £380,000 from Innovate UK – the UK’s innovation agency – the project will adapt Molendotech’s Bacterisk technology, a near real-time bacteria risk assessment kit that provides an assessment of water quality in 15 minutes (instead of other methods that currently take longer than 48 hours).
It will then combine that technology with artificial intelligence (AI) to develop an early warning system that benefits from both weather and water analysis data, and a smartphone app that includes the test results, GPS data and pictures.
Professor Simon Jackson, Founder and Chief Scientific Officer at Molendotech, adds:
"We know the waters within many of our rivers and streams are polluted. And with increased public river use, there is growing demand for evidence that the water is safe, or otherwise, at any given time. This project will provide an easy-to-use and rapid way of identifying instances of river pollution, enabling communities to become data providers and have greater confidence in the water quality within their local streams and rivers."
Molendotech is a spinout company of the University of Plymouth, and works out of two University-managed facilities – the Brixham Laboratory in Devon and the Health and Wellbeing Innovation Centre in Truro, Cornwall.
Formed in 2018, the company develops rapid pathogen testing technology and Bacterisk is an easy-to-use, portable and rapid test to monitor and detect pathogens found in water and deliver quick and accurate results.
The tools are already being used by water utilities and other stakeholders in the UK to reduce the risk of public health for water users, and – in another project with the University – to develop an autonomous remote sampler to be deployed at coastal locations around the South West.

BactiQuick: an AI-based early warning system for river catchment pollution

Working with MolEndoTech Ltd, University of Plymouth is developing an AI-based early warning system for detecting river contamination, through continuous monitoring of data and a novel point-of-use bacterial assay device.
The BactiQuick project builds on patented technology and offers a rapid, portable solution for detecting pathogens in water, delivering results in just 15 minutes.
BactiQuick collecting river water samples at Bidwell Brook