Water & Wastewater Asia July/August 2020

36 FOCUS
A final comparison of ATP, qPCR and NGS microbial monitoring techniques
continually ensure that good MIC risk
mitigation strategies are being followed.
NGS is also useful to probe the potential
causative microorganisms in the case of
a pipeline failure. Damaged sections of
pipeline can be assessed to determine
what microbes were present and in what
quantities and abundances. Compilation
of this data will help assist the industry
identify what levels of which microbes
represent a risk and develop better
guidelines for microbial control.
Regardless of the requirements for
microbial testing, the combination of ATP,
qPCR and NGS will allow the near full
characterisation of a system, with varying
degrees of rapidity and specificity. In the
case that the system is in good control,
regular ATP testing can be supplemented
at intervals with qPCR and NGS to ensure
that desired groupings are kept in check.
When ATP testing indicates an elevated
population, qPCR or NGS can be used
to determine whether these microbes
represent a risk for MIC. WWA
Existing techniques to try to assess MIC risk typically rely on culturing organisms - these techniques
rely on the measurement of adenosine triphosphate (ATP) and DNA.
Photo credit: Michal Jarmoluk
July / August 2020 • waterwastewaterasia.com