The Project of Microbial Risk Assessment and Control Strategy for Potable Water in Pakistan
Home The Project of Microbial Risk Assessment and Control Strategy for Potable Water in Pakistan

The quality of potable water is closely connected with health. It is estimated that more than 1 billion people around the world have no access to safe drinking water, especially in some developing countries. Pakistan is one of them. The people there are confronted with risks of unsafe dringking water due to severe environmental pollution and poor public health. In its capital Islamabad, water is often purified with  such conventional approaches as flocculation, sedimentation, filtration, and chlorination before it runs through 37 filters, installed by the Capital Development Authority (CDA), to local residents. But the water is still found with coliform bacteria and even E. coli , making microbe a serious concern over the water’s potability. It is important to ensure access to  potable water without harmful microbes. It is an effort that will greatly  improve the people’s health,livelihoods and well-being, and also a project that makes great contribution to the cause of China-Pakistan friendship.

The project aimed at assessing and controlling microbial risk in drinking water for Pakistan is one of the the 2018 Global Challenge Programs organized by Shanghai Jiao Tong University (SJTU) . The project team was comprised of teachers and students from both SJTU School of Life Sciences and Biotechnology and the Department of Biosciences at the COMSATS University Islamabad, who would  tackle the challenges with their expertise in ensuring water safety in Islamabad and Rawalpindi. The project involved field inspection, laboratory detection, theoretical analysis and technical instruction. The Chinese and international students worked hand in hand completing this challenging scientific project.

The team led by Bai Xiaohui, a teacher with SJTU, the members including doctoral candidate Hira Khan and graduate students Wang Yang and Liu Mingkun from SJTU, left Shanghai on July 23rd, 2018, and returned after the project concluded on August 4th.

Management Guidelines

  • The project leader should ensure all the tasks are effectively completed through weekly meetings to track progress.
  • Team members will be sent to Pakistan, and our partners will provide a lab and offices there.
  • The team will involve some Pakistani students, who will help our members to collect samples from local cities.
  • Each student will be assigned a task with a deadline.
  • The samples shall be sent to China for sequencing.