Engineers Without Borders-Los Angeles Uses Aquagenx CBT Kit and Makes Startling Discovery About Tanzanian Village's Water Supply

CBT Kit revealed their main source for drinking water was highly contaminated with E. coli bacteria

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Apr 06, 2016, 07:00 ET

CHAPEL HILL, N.C., April 6, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Engineers Without Borders-Los Angeles Professional Chapter (EWB-LA) is developing an improvement project for the tap water system in Lulindi, Tanzania. They built a French drain to increase water flow into an existing catchment basin during the dry season. This catchment basin is the village's main source of drinking water.

EWB-LA had no easy way to monitor water quality of the catchment basin. Other bacteriological water quality tests presented obstacles because the village is in a remote area with no laboratory access. The terrain is steep, making it difficult to carry bulky testing equipment.

EWB-LA used the Aquagenx CBT Kit because it is a portable water quality test for E. coli optimized for on-site testing in remote, rural areas.

The CBT Kit's quantitative test results revealed the village's catchment basin had more than 100 E. coli per 100 mL, making it extremely unsafe to drink. EWB-LA concluded that water in the catchment basin was most likely contaminated by the village school's latrines.

The CBT Kit enabled EWB-LA to provide the village drinking water from safer sources. Its color-change test results were a powerful way for the village to see that their main source of drinking water was extremely unsafe and dangerous to drink.

Pedro Piqueras of EWB-LA says, "We will absolutely continue using the CBT Kit. It's easy to use, and even the village children in Tanzania learned to use it! The CBT is cheap, reliable, easy to transport and easy to understand."

Piquera concludes, "I recommend the CBT Kit to anyone who does water quality testing in developing countries and low resource areas."

The Aquagenx Compartment Bag Test (CBT), is a simple, portable water quality test that determines if water poses a health risk. Testing is done in a few steps that generate quantified, easy-to-score, color-change results. The CBT is ideal for on-site testing in low resource and disaster/emergency areas. No electricity, laboratories, cold chain, expensive equipment or skilled technicians are required to use the CBT.

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SOURCE Aquagenx