Abstract
More than 783 million people worldwide are currently without access to clean and safe water. Approximately 1 in 5 cases of mortality due to waterborne diseases involve children, and over 1.5 million cases of waterborne disease occur every year. In the developing world, this makes waterborne diseases the second highest cause of mortality. Such cases of waterborne disease are thought to be caused by poor sanitation, water infrastructure, public knowledge, and lack of suitable water monitoring systems. Conventional laboratory-based techniques are inadequate for effective on-site water quality monitoring purposes. This is due to their need for excessive equipment, operational complexity, lack of affordability, and long sample collection to data analysis times. In this review, we discuss the conventional techniques used in modern-day water quality testing. We discuss the future challenges of water quality testing in the developing world and how conventional techniques fall short of these challenges. Finally, we discuss the development of electrochemical biosensors and current research on the integration of these devices with microfluidic components to develop truly integrated, portable, simple to use and cost-effective devices for use by local environmental agencies, NGOs, and local communities in low-resource settings.
Highlights
More than 783 million people worldwide are currently without access to clean and safe water
In the age of diagnostics that we find ourselves in, there is a need for truly cost-effective devices that are fully integrated with current manufacturing standards and protocols
Impedimetric to no current is present in the electrochemical cell, the ion-activity data at the interface can sensors allow for the analysis complex resistance capacitance relating to oxidation and reduction be acquired
Summary
Water covers approximately 71% of the Earth’s surface, making the Earth the blue planet of our solar system with the most accessible water [1]. The reasons for the concentrated effect of disease prevalence are thought to be related to the high levels of poverty found in certain areas of these countries, preventing development of adequate wastewater treatment, freshwater transport infrastructure, and affordable water monitoring systems [17]. This runoff further contributes to the development of pathogenic microbial communities with the potential for causing disease [20] When water sources such as lakes, rivers, and reservoirs become unsafe for consumption due to microbial contamination, the responses of high-income countries and LMICs are widely dissimilar. We believe that electrochemical biosensors could be a promising and robust option for the future of these devices
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
