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Safe drinking water: worldwide priority nr 1 Currently over 20% of world's population does not have access to safe drinking water. Driven by the strong growth of the world population and increasing urbanisation global water demand is forecast to double in the next 40 years, creating even greater water shortages. As contamination of water provides direct health and environmental risks, safe drinking water has become one of the highest priorities worldwide. This is also illustrated by the Millennium Development Goals: 50% reduction of the proportion of the world population that has no sustainable access to safe drinking water and basic sanitation by 2015. Currently available monitoring and testing methods fail In light of health (drinking water is typically distributed and consumed before testing) and environmental policies, regulatory demands with respect to water quality monitoring are becoming more and more strict and sophisticated. For this purpose testing is required throughout the water sector (drinking and industrial water) and throughout the water product cycle (from source to waste treatment). However, the majority of currently available analysis products and solutions are based on 50 year old analysis concepts and technologies and are either (i) low cost and qualitative, or (ii) expensive, quantitative (laboratory) tests. Most currently available online solutions only focus on an-organic testing (eg. dissolved oxygen, chlorophyll, turbidity, conductivity, temperature, Ph, etc.) where less sensitivity is required (1 – 1000 milligram per litre).Organic testing and micro biological testing require much higher sensitivities (< 1 microgram per litre). Currently available solutions for organic and micro-biological analysis are therefore mostly laboratory based (off-line) and expensive or lack sufficient sensitivity. Next Generation Sensors for Organic and Micro-biological analysis The demand for organic and micro-biological analysis tools is strongly increasing as contamination of water provides direct health and environmental risks. In this light there is a growing requirement for next generation sensors that are highly sensitive and fully integrated in monitoring and Decision Support Systems. Optiqua Biosensors are true Next Generation Sensors for the detection of organic and micro-biological contaminants: - Generic optical sensor concept
- Unparalleled sensitivity levels (high end laboratory sensitivity, lower ppb)
- Easy to integrate, modular design
- Next Generation:
- Online: advances in chip technologies and miniaturization technologies have made it possible to fully integrate sensor systems into production environments and distribution infrastructures (i.e. non-laboratory environments). This allows for the continuous (or at intervals) and online taking of test samples with minimal manual intervention (automated processes).
- Real time: in order to benefit from online sensor systems it is important the system produces direct test results
- Smart : connecting the sensors with the calculating capabilities of computers and integration with monitoring and other (automated) Decision Support Systems. Smart sensors are sophisticated, intelligent devices that translate to better performance, optimized monitoring capabilities and improved risk control.
- Providing substantial cost benefits
- No direct competition offering similar set of features,as also illustrated by the results of the United States Environmental Protection Agency “EPA” review of Early Warning Systems in December 2005
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Water Market 
