Chapel Hill, NC – Aguaconsult, a UK-based consulting company that improves the delivery of sustainable basic services for marginalized people in less developed countries, now uses the Aquagenx Compartment Bag Test (CBT) for water quality monitoring programs. They recently used the CBT to perform an assessment of the Accelerating Water and Sanitation for All Program in Myanmar. The program was funded by the Department for International Development (DFID) in the UK and implemented by UNICEF in collaboration with the Government of Myanmar.
A major challenge for Aguaconsult in the Myanmar program was water quality testing for E. coli bacteria needed to be done in remote villages with little or no access to electricity or a cold chain, and with very limited capacity for traditional membrane filtration water quality tests.
Aguaconsult deployed the CBT to conduct on-site water quality testing in remote areas of Myanmar. They worked with a local data collection firm, Myanmar Survey Research out of Yangon, to collect and analyze water samples.
100 mL water samples were collected with CBT Kits at the source, community storage tanks and in a small number of households. Together with sanitary inspection surveys, CBT Kits provided an inexpensive snapshot of overall drinking water quality and the extent of health risks in each community.
CBT water quality test kit results were obtained after incubating the samples at ambient temperature between 25-44.5° Celsius. The results highlighted areas that need to be targeted for additional interventions to improve water quality, and/or safe water handling storage practices at the household level.
“The Aquagenx CBT is the best water quality test on the market for this type of study,” says Dr. Ryan Schweitzer, Principal Consultant at Aguaconsult. “It’s easy to use, easy to transport and easy to interpret test results. The CBT is ideal for on-site testing in remote areas because it provides reliable results and doesn’t require specialized knowledge or equipment to use. It has a small number of incubation requirements so it’s very flexible in low resource areas.”
“Compared to alternative water quality tests,” concludes Dr. Schweitzer, “the CBT Kit is inexpensive and much more portable.”
The Aquagenx Compartment Bag Test (CBT), is a simple, portable water quality test for E. coli bacteria that generates quantified, easy-to-score, color-change test results. It is ideal for on-site testing in low resource, rural and disaster/emergency areas. No electricity, laboratories, cold chain, expensive equipment or skilled technicians are required to use the CBT. CBT Kits are used throughout the world by NGOs, humanitarian relief agencies, governments, private companies, universities and agricultural operations.