Inventors: Sammy Mahdi & George Lewis, Waterscope
WaterScope is a social impact start-up based in Cambridge, UK and in Göttingen, Germany. WaterScope’s mission is to enable inclusive access to smart, easy-to-use, and reliable testing for bacterial presence in drinking water.
WaterScope’s technology has been designed to be easy-to-use, quick and portable, enabling water to be tested for E. coli at any site. The system has two modes of operation: a rapid warning mode after 8 hours and a fully quantitative mode where the results available after 21 hours. This enables communities to carry out their own water testing and monitoring, without needing to wait for samples to be transported to central laboratories. A fully-functional prototype of the product has been produced which weighs only 7kg including its power bank, allowing it to be carried to remote locations. In addition, WaterScope offers a digital dashboard that collects the data from the systems and allows for relevant stakeholders to access the water quality data.
Waterscope has so far focused on the sub-Saharan African markets, and now would like to understand the potential for the solution in Vietnam.
The questions for the i-Team include:
What is the potential for manufacturing in Vietnam based on current Vietnamese areas of expertise?
Where is there the greatest need for the WaterScope device in Vietnam?
What are the possible routes to market for the WaterScope device, for example through distributors of lab equipment?
What is the current regulation for water testing in Vietnam and how many microbiology water tests are conducted?