Dr. Justin Sperling and Dr. Baptiste Poursat were awarded an SPIE Global Early Career Researchers Award in partnership with Dr. Rijan Maharjan and Dr. Ashim Dhakal from the Phutung Research Institute (PRI) in Kathmandu, Nepal. The purpose of this collaboration was to promote a knowledge exchange regarding decentralised water monitoring between Scotland and Nepal and to encourage further international collaboration. To that end, a researcher exchange between the two institutes was organised, where Dr. Maharjan visited UofG in December 2024, and Dr. Poursat and Dr. Sperling visited the PRI in February 2025. The Decentralised Water Technologies Grant help supplement the expenses from the reciprocal visits.
The realtimeWAS tool being used to measure a sample.
PRI specialises in developing optical equipment to monitor water quality in decentralised areas.
Their realtimeWAS technology is designed to measure bacterial contamination in surface water, helping to protect drinking water in underserved and remote regions.
Various water sources within the urbanised districts surrounding Kathmandu, Nepal. Photos taken showing
the state of rivers (a) Bagmati and (b) Tukucha in the valley showing direct discharge of sewage into and general waste within both. (c-d) Two drinking water sources utilised by the population for domestic usage. (e) Decentralised water treatment works and water storage from one of the sites. (f) Decentralised drinking water treatment system in the Hotel Timila.
Dr Maharjan, Dr Sperling and Dr Poursat presenting at the EPSRC Off-grid Water Technology Plenary Session, December 2024
During his visit, Dr. Maharjan was able to meet researchers in the DWT team, Scottish Water, and members of Scottish island communities.During their visit, Dr. Poursat and Dr. Sperling were able to visit the laboratories at PRI, meet with the research teams, and offer insights to help improve lab setup and organisation; meet with engineers, operators, and the president of a community-based decentralised water system; visit decentralised water treatment works and improvised water sources in Nepal; and explore the technological, societal, and economic factors related to drinking water in Nepal.
Photographs of researchers visiting community-led decentralised drinking water treatment sites; (a) Researchers with the operations team, engineering team, and president of the project. Facilities in (b-c) Dakshinbarahi.,(d-e) Sikaritar, and (f-g) Tarkhagal.
Together, the researchers were also able to demonstrate and rigorously test the RealtimeWAS tool on collected surface water samples in Scotland, have a manuscript in preparation, and have begun drafting future funding applications from this work.
Additionally, Dr. Poursat and Dr. Sperling have been invited as invited speakers and session chairs for the 6th International Conference on Bioscience and Biotechnology, in February 2026, that PRI is co-organizing, and Dr. Maharjan has been invited as a speaker for SPIE Photonics West 2026 under the BIOS 305 conference.
By bridging expertise across disciplines and countries, this work advances decentralised water monitoring, promoting resilient and sustainable water management in both high and low-income contexts.
