In 2014, Oxford Nanopore Technologies (ONT) introduced an affordable and portable sequencer called MinION. We reviewed emerging applications in water research and assessed progress made with this platform towards ubiquitous genetics. With >99% savings in upfront costs as compared to conventional platforms, the MinION put sequencing capacity into the hands of many researchers and enabled novel applications with diverse remits, including in countries without universal access to safe water and sanitation. However, to realize the MinION’s fabled portability, all the auxiliary equipment items for biomass concentration, genetic material extraction, cleanup, quantification, and sequencing library preparation also need to be lightweight and affordable. Only a few studies demonstrated fully portable workflows by using the MinION onboard a diving vessel, an oceanographic research ship, and at sewage treatment works. Lower nanopore sequencing read accuracy as compared to alternative platforms currently hinders MinION applications beyond research, and inclusion of positive and negative controls should become standard practice. ONT’s EPI2ME platform is a major step towards user-friendly bioinformatics. However, no consensus has yet emerged regarding the most appropriate bioinformatic pipeline, which hinders intercomparison of study results. Processing, storing, and interpreting large data sets remains a major challenge for ubiquitous genetics and democratizing sequencing applications.

Rural populations in Tanzania use unsafe drinking water from unimproved water sources which are inadequately treated using plant seed powder. The effectiveness of defatted crude seed extract (dCSE) of Moringa oleifera along with water filtration and solar disinfection (SODIS) for rural household water treatment was investigated. The performance of dCSE in turbidity and bacteria reduction was evaluated in 20 L buckets using river water with varied turbidities. Coagulation–flocculation processes were conducted using different dosages of 5% (Weight/Volume) dCSE. Optimum dosage for maximum turbid removal was established after 2–6 h of settling time. Optimum dosages of dCSE were 20, 30 and 80 mL/20 L for water with a turbidity of 150, 450 and 1,000 NTU with turbidity removal efficiencies of 98, 99 and 99%, respectively. The filtration process was able to remove about 66% of suspended solids from pretreated water by dCSE after coagulation/flocculation/sedimentation. SODIS of pretreated water in black painted and unpainted bottles removed 99 and 97.6%; 99.9 and 98.6% of total and fecal coliforms after 6 h of sunlight exposure, respectively. The pH and color of treated water were within Tanzania Standards. This study recommends dCSE, filtration and SODIS for use at household level for water treatment and storage using pots.

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Treatment of effluents from batik producing enterprises to removal dyes and other impurities is inevitable as these enterprises are becoming ubiquitous in many cities in Tanzania. Wastewater from batik production processes are discharged haphazardly without treatment. In this study, preliminary results on adsorption potential of defatted Moringa oleifera crude seed extract (DMOCSE) and fuel wood ash (FWA) for dye and chemical oxygen demand (COD) in batik processing wastewater (BPW) are presented. Batch and column adsorption studies were conducted using varied dye concentrations, adsorbents dosage, contact time and pH. 7% (w/v) DMOCSE at the dosage of 15 to 25 ml/L produced minimum residual dye in BPW with initial color ranging from 480 to 675 mgpt-Co/L. Optimum contact time for DMOCSE ranged from 1.5 to 2.5 h and pH 7.5 to 9.5 with 75.5 to 93% dye removal efficiency. FWA at optimum dosage of 25 g/l, contact time of 1.5 to 3 h and pH 8.5 to 11.5 removed 78.8 to 84% of dye. FWA and DMOCSE reduced 98 and 64% of COD. The FWA packed column with depth of 20 and 25 cm achieved 99% dye removal after 4 to 6 h of retention time. The findings reveal that DMOCSE and FWA have potential to treat BPW in both batch and column mode.