Sydney: Researchers have developed a tool that analyses water purity within minutes, against the 20 to 48 hours required by existing methods.

The tool will boost "water safety and reduce health risk from use of contaminated water in the developing world", said David Garman, executive director of Environmental Biotechnology Cooperative Research Centre (EBCRC) at the World Water Congress in Vienna.

"Our technology mimics the human body's ability to detect pathogens. By using antibodies in combination with nano and micro particles, we can easily identify pathogens in an environmental sample," said Garman.

"By providing highly specific results in the field, the system will enhance the early detection and management of disease outbreaks and contamination. Other systems similar to ours require complex lab equipment or high temperatures, which are just not viable in remote field operations," he said.

The user friendly system will feed results directly into to portable devices via simple electronic readouts, laptops and PDAs. It will detect a broad range of water borne contaminants like faecal coliforms and E. coli, among others. The system is also adaptable to food and environmental applications.

Methods currently in use to identify waterborne microbes are either sensitive but slow, requiring up to three days for a result, or relatively fast but insensitive when used with diluted samples. IANS