One of the ways to know if water is safe to drink is by testing faecal contamination in water. Testing water quality parameters in humanitarian settings is often difficult and expensive. Microbiological water quality tests may require access to a lab nearby or specialized equipment that is heavy, bulky and can cost well over $1000.

We have developed a simple, low-cost, portable and lightweight testing kit to test for faecal contamination in water samples anywhere in the world. The kit includes a USB-powered incubator to store and incubate lightweight plastic pretri dishes containing dried chromogenic agar. If water samples contain coliform bacteria or E.coli these bacteria will reproduce and become visible over the course of 14-16 hours at a 38-42 C temperature provided by a low-powered 5V (2.5Wh) heating pad.

Faircap’s portable lab for testing faecal contamination in water is made out of a portable, lightweight, USB-powered incubator, a small reusable plastic concentrating disk, 0.45micron/50mm diameter paper filters and E.coli and Coliform compact dry plastic petri dishes. You will also need a 50ml syringe, a pen, alcohol, tissues and tweezers.