Increasing access to water quality tests in low-income communities is a crucial strategy toward achieving global water equality. Recent studies in the Water Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) sector underscore the importance of addressing practical concerns in water testing, such as robustness and results communication. In response, we present the WaterScope testing kit; an open-source, validated platform for drinking water quality assessment. It modernises the testing process with the inclusion of a unique cartridge/slider mechanism, machine-learning-enhanced classification and full digitalisation of results. WaterScope’s equivalency to conventional methods for quantifying E. coli is established through extensive validation experiments in both laboratory and field environments. This versatile platform provides potential to expand its applications to test other bacteria, perform colorimetric assays, and analyse clinical samples such as blood/urine samples. We anticipate that the system’s ease-of-use, portability, affordability, robustness, and digital nature will accelerate progress toward global water equality.

增加低收入社区获得水质检测的机会是实现全球水平等的一项重要战略。水环境卫生和个人卫生 (WASH) 领域的最新研究强调了解决水测试中实际问题的重要性，例如稳健性和结果沟通。作为回应，我们推出了 WaterScope 测试套件；一个经过验证的开源饮用水质量评估平台。它通过包含独特的墨盒/滑块机制、机器学习增强的分类和结果的完全数字化来实现测试过程的现代化。 WaterScope 与定量大肠杆菌的传统方法的等效性是通过在实验室和现场环境中进行的广泛验证实验确定的。这个多功能平台提供了扩展其应用的潜力，以测试其他细菌、进行比色分析以及分析临床样本（例如血液/尿液样本）。我们预计该系统的易用性、便携性、经济性、稳健性和数字化特性将加速实现全球水平等的进程。