Around the world, 1 billion people lack access to safe drinking water. Disease spread through contaminated water is responsible for an estimated 1.8 million deaths every year. Not only are HIV-positive people more susceptible to such diseases, water and HIV are also linked in many other ways - economic prospects, for example, are limited when children must fetch water instead of attending school, and they will also miss out on receiving HIV/AIDS education. By identifying those water sources that are contaminated and those that are safe - 'OK to drink'- a low-cost water test could help to prevent deaths, and also improve the resilience of communities affected by the pandemic.

Cell-Life's first visit to Asia took place from 10-14 September when Melissa Loudon attended the IWA World Water Congress held in Beijing. The programme included a workshop on the EU AQUATEST project, which is a preliminary study into the development of a low-cost water test and associated management systems for use in developing countries. As a project partner, Cell-Life is particularly involved in investigating the use of mobile devices and web-based GIS reporting to improve water quality monitoring. This could be used as part of national or NGO-initiated monitoring programmes, as well as in efforts to monitor progress towards the MDGs. We hope that better monitoring will result in better allocation of resources and in turn in improvements in public health and in the lives of communities affected by HIV/AIDS.