The actual situation in terms of microbial contamination detection on drinking water plants is very slow and not reliable. First, the actual method takes 2-3 days to show any abnormal situation, time where population will get sick. Secondly, the actual procedure identify only a small percentage of bacteria (1-5%) as not all bacteria are able to growth on a dry nutrient support. The whole procedure requires 50 gr of plastic of lab consumable. The BactoSense device detects automatically in less than 30 min all bacteria in water directly coming from the process via a single sampling tube. When placed at the entry of the plant, the device acts as an early warning system in case of abnormal microbial conditions. When placed in other locations, process optimization can be generated with potential reductions of chlorine, impacting positively tap water acceptance and bottled water consumption (EU major initiative). On a 10 years basis, 1000 kg of plastic consumption and more than 3 to of CO2 can be avoided.
