De Watergroep, a leading water utility in Belgium, serving a majority of the Flemish region, has validated a novel water monitoring method for concentrating somatic coliphages, a key indicator of fecal contamination.
According to a press release, the validation was conducted at their central laboratory under the guidance of Bea Timmermans, advisor for research and quality in water microbiology at De Watergroep.
The method utilizes InnovaPrep’s Concentrating Pipetter (CP Select), which is a rapid benchtop microorganism concentration device designed to significantly enhance sensitivity for analysis purposes.
The Directive(EU) 2020/2184 of the European Parliament and Council mandates stringent water safety testing requirements for drinking water companies. The council imposed a new required measurement for somatic coliphage virus load in water for human consumption.
Compliance with this directive requires testing raw water both before treatment, and if detected above specified levels, posttreatment as well.
The comprehensive validation project encompassed three primary matrices: ground water, surface water and post treatment drinking water. Key parameters assessed during validation included reproducibility, repeatability, limit of quantitation, linearity, robustness, measurement uncertainty, bias and recovery through efficiency of the concentration step.
The validation work underwent rigorous auditing by BELAC in March 2024, resulting in the accreditation of analysis of somatic coliphages including concentration by thr CP Select Method under ISO 17025 standards.
The newly drafted version of the WAC/V/A/010 has been included in VITO’s Compendium for the Sampling, Measurement and Analysis of Water.
