Quality control

Disinfecting drinking water with active chlorine is, without doubt, beneficial. However, it does require the ability to control the correct concentration of chlorine and the correct dilution into the water to treat.

WataTest: Quality control check for concentrated chlorine

Producing chlorine locally with a WATA device is simple, but you need to be sure of the concentration you have produced. This may depend on the quality of your salty solution, the timing and the power supply used.

Antenna has therefore developed the WataTest, a non-toxic and inexpensive reagent, to allow producers to check the concentration, and to proceed to the dilution required accordingly.

Additionally, if the producer sells the chlorine under the label WATASOL, it is essential to guarantee the concentration of 6 g/L.

Content of WataTest kit:

- 1 x flask of 50ml of WataTest (~60 to 70 tests)

- 1 x plastic pipette (3ml) – 1 x syringue (1ml)

- 1 x WataTest user guide

Pricing: 15 CHF / 12,50€ (prices in Euros may change**), excluding shipping

Each kit of the line WATA is provided with un WataTest control kit.

WataBlue: Free residual chlorine measurement check

The presence of free chlorine residual in drinking water indicates that:

1) a sufficient amount of chlorine was added to the water to inactivate most of the bacteria and viruses that cause diarrheal disease;

2) the water is protected from recontamination during transport to the home, and during storage of water in the household. Because the presence of free residual chlorine in drinking water indicates the likely absence of disease-causing organisms, it is used as one measure of the degree of safety of drinking water.

To meet this need, Antenna has developed a low-cost and non-toxic reagent: the WataBlue reagent. With its sensitivity and long-term reliability, any user can carry out a safe and systematic quality control of drinking water. It is only in this way that the local, low-cost production of quality drinking water can be guaranteed and sustained.

Content of WataBlue kit:

- 1 x flask of 10ml of WataBlue (~250 tests, one drop is one test)

- 1 x plastic pipette (3ml) – 1 x test tube(1ml)

- 1 x WataBlue user guide

Pricing: 7.50 CHF / 6.25 € (prices in Euros may change**), excluding shipping

Each kit of the line WATA is provided with un WataBlue control kit.

Other methods to control the residual chlorine.

Nowadays, the prevalent methods of measuring residual chlorine are either costly, or dangerous, or not reliable enough for the concentrations usually found in drinking water.

Using DPD (diethyl-para-phenylene diamine) tablets is the most common way to control the quality of drinking water, in matters of chorine. Produced in industrialised countries, they are expensive and rarely available in developing nations. Moreover, being toxic, their use requires strict precautions. As such, DPD is not a sustainable solution for low-income countries.

Another common way to measure residual chlorine in water, especially practised by owners of swimming pool, is using specially-prepared paper strips. Tests have shown, however, that they are not sensitive enough for the quality control of drinking water. They are too unreliable to ensure that the WHO standards, necessarily stringent, are met.

For these reasons, Antenna has developed the WataBlue reagent.

* Part of this text was derived from the Chlorine Residual Testing Fact Sheet of the CDC SWS Project of the Center for Disease Control.

** Original prices are in CHF.  Rate of change EUR/CHF = 1.20 // 30.08.2011