International award for the joint project of Eawag and Wasserversorgung Zürich
26 August 2010
An interdisciplinary team consisting of members of Eawag and «Wasserversorgung Zürich» (Zurich Water Company) won the Muelheim Water Award. The jury selected the Swiss project among 23 international applications because it presented a new, practical method for the evaluation of drinking water. Prof. Thomas Egli of Eawag receives the award in the name of his colleagues Dr. Fredrik Hammes, Eawag, as well as Dr. Oliver Köster and Dr. Hans-Peter Kaiser of «Wasserversorgung Zürich». The team convinced the jury with its project «Development of new methods for the microbiological analysis of drinking water based on flow cytometry and their practical application». Contrary to classic microbiological methods, this method is capable of directly detecting the germ count in drinking water to a much larger extent. It is already in application at present at «Wasserversorgung Zürich» and contributes to securing the high quality of the drinking water in Zurich.
The Muelheim Water Award distinguishes outstanding projects in the field of practice-oriented research and implementation of innovative concepts that contribute to improving the water management. It is advertised every two years and endowed with 20 000 Euro. This is the second time that an Eawag team receives the award.
Further information
Prof. Thomas Egli: +41 44 823 5158; thomas.egli@eawag.ch
Photos
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The HPC method (plating) is still being used today
across the whole world to estimate the microbiological quality of drinking
water. Time needed 3-10 days; bacteria counted <1% of total. (© Eawag) |
Flow cytometry with laser beam allows rapid detection of all cells based on staining or on the size. Time needed: 10 minutes; Bacteria counted: 100%. |
Links
- Muelheim Water Award
- «New methods for assessing the safety of drinking water», Thomas Egli (Background article
pdf)
- Wasserversorgung Zürich
- This release as pdf-file