aquaBio: sole supplier to Mekorot, Israel's national water company

Continuous and automatic monitoring of microbiological parameters in drinking water.

Challenge

Israel faces major challenges related to water scarcity and drought due to its arid climate and scarcity of water resources:

  • Approximately 60% of Israel's land area is desert, and therest is semi-arid, limiting natural water sources.
  • More than 70% of Israel's drinking water comes from desalination plants, converting seawater into drinkingwater through advanced processes.
  • StudyIsrael leads in wastewater treatmentand reuse, with about 90% of wastewatertreated and reused, mainly in agriculture.
  • In 2023, Israel experienced its driest winterin 60 years, with rainfall that was half ofnormal, raising the risk of drought.

These data reflect the complexity of water management in Israel and the surrounding region, where water scarcity and technological innovations play a crucial role in sustainability and access to drinking water.

Mekorot is Israel's national water company and plays a crucial role in Israel's water security. It is responsible for managing and operating the water supply system in the country, whose mission is to ensure the supply of high quality drinking water for the Israeli population and industries, as well as water resource management and water treatment.

Monitoring and controlling the quality of drinking water is essential for the maintenance of public health.

In Israel, this control is performed by Mekorot, in accordance with the Ministry of Health standards specified in the PublicHealth Regulations. The methods currently used to monitor microbial contamination in water are classical standard methods, such as MPN (Most Probable Number) and Membrane Filtration (MF).

These methods provide results within24-48 hours from the time of sampling, which makes risk assessment and timely treatment of contaminations difficult.

To reduce response times, Mekorot investsnumerous resources in improving itsmonitoring system.

It is in this context that Mekorot has initiated a project for the evaluation of different technologies available on the market for the determination of microbiological indicators.

Between 2018 until 2020, it has evaluated 6 different technologies, including Adasa's automatic and continuous microbiological measuring device aquaBio, at water treatment plants in the Jordan Valley area and the northern region.

The aim has been to prevent the entry of bacteria into the supply system, protect the water catchment areas and ensure future drinking water safety measures.

Adasa’s Solution

Mekorot has carried out a public tender for the supply of an advanced system for the automatic monitoring of the drinking water supply with online microbiological sensors in which different equipment has been evaluated.

For the Israeli water utility, the use of automatic and continuously improved methods enables real-time detection of the presence of dangerous pathogens.

Adasa has presented the aquaBio device, designed,manufactured and developed in-house, for automatic, in-line and continuous microbiological measurement. aquaBio automatically determines the presence of E. coli and total coliforms in water.

Mekorot has carried out a process of verification of the reliability of the results compared to the laboratory method and its effectiveness and robustness in the field of aquaBio.

The detection and quantification capability of the different devices for E. coli and total coliforms, their detection limit, the quality of the measurement in different water sources and their continuous operation in the field were evaluated in the following stages:

  • First stage: verify the detection limit of the device.
  • Second stage: test the effect of different types of water onthe quality of the measurement.
  • Third stage: placing the device in the field.

The results show that the aquaBio:

  • is sensitive to bacterial concentrations in the unit range,meeting Mekorot standards,
  • there are slight differences in the measurements accordingto the water sources, although they are not significant and can be corrected for each type of water.
  • is robust and easy to use, as evidenced by its operation in the field.

The method used in aquaBio is aligned with the standard protocols of the Standard Methods for the Examinationof Water and Wastewater (APHA, AWWA, WEF), specifically following the 9223B standard.

In addition to the internal validation performed at Mekorot, aquaBio has ETV (Environmental Technology Verification)verification, which guarantees the issuance of reliable and trust worthy data accredited by an independent body.

In this way, decisions derived from monitoring with aquaBio can be made with complete confidence. It provides a result within 3 hours for high concentrations and within 12 hours ensures the total absence of bacteria. The measuring principle is based on DST® technology (defined substrate technology) and a detection system to measure fluorescence and absorbance.

Color and fluorescence appear as soon as the specific substrateis metabolized.

Result

Mekorot's report claims that the aquaBio analyzer, unlike other competitors, is the onlyone capable of meeting the requirements for drinking water, offering fast and accurate detection of microbiological contamination.

According to Mekorot, Adasa's advanced aquaBio technology allows not only the continuous detection of pathogens, but also the highly accurate quantification of E. coli, eliminating the need for time-consuming manual analysis.

In this way, the Israeli water utility can react immediately to any potential threat to public health.

The end result has been that Mekorot has approved the aquaBio device as a unique continuous monitoring technology for the measurement of E. coli and total coliforms. Consequently, it has proceeded to purchase Adasa's automatic aquaBio systems forearly warning of microbial contamination in the drinking water system.

image

Client

Mekorot is a state-owned company under the responsibility of the Ministry of Infrastructure, Energy and Water. The company is engaged in water management, production and supply, wastewater recycling, brackish water desalination and more.

Mekorot currently supplies about 80% of the drinking water and approximately 70% of the water consumed in Israel.

In addition, it is responsible for the treatment of 42% of the wastewater in Israel (180 million cubic meters per year out of a total of 430 million cubic meters treated annually) in 8 facilities of various sizes, and manages approximately 60% of the treated wastewater for agriculture.

Downloads

aquaBio: sole supplier to Mekorot, Israel's national water company, for the continuous and automatic monitoring of microbiological parameters

iBathwater: Ensure bathing water quality with advanced urban water management

aquaBio: Minimize health risks to bathers in the river Spree (Berlin)

aquaBio: Prevent health risks to bathers from discharges of untreated wastewater (Barcelona)

See our work

DID NOT FIND WHAT YOU ARE LOOKING FOR?

Contact our experts