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.