Detecting Water Contamination Before It Reaches Your Tap

The Fellowship  |  June 8, 2021

In order for Israelis to survive in the desert, experts needed to find ways to provide enough clean drinking water for Israeli citizens. Today, Israel is a world leader in water conservation and wants to share their technologies with other nations that are experiencing shortages or contamination in tap water, reports Israel21c:

According to the 2020 UN Global Water Development Report, around two-thirds of the global population experience severe water shortages for at least one month out of the year.

And even when water does reach the tap, it is not always safe to drink due to contamination – a widespread issue affecting roughly 500 million people worldwide…

Funded by the Israeli government’s Water Authority, the new study aimed to assess fluorescence spectroscopy as a tool to rapidly measure and evaluate the microbial quality of water.

“The new method we have developed offers the possibility of knowing about an adverse change in the quality of the water in the drinking water supply systems in real time,” says Sela, [Prof. Shlomo Sela of the Department of Food Science at the Volcani Center, Agricultural Research Organization at Rishon Lezion]