From Passion to Impact: How Listening to Community Voices Informed Water Contamination Testing in Nepal

While at MIT, recent graduate Mitali Chowdhury ’24 completed the MCSC Climate & Sustainability Scholars Program, where they had the opportunity to combine passions for biology, engineering, and environmental justice to research and innovate water testing. Mitali, who majored in biological engineering and minored in urban planning and environment and sustainability, worked alongside MIT Professor Benedetto Marelli and other members of the Laboratory of Advanced Biopolymers, as well as Susan Murcott from MIT D-Lab. Through their guidance, as well as the support of peers in the Scholars Program, Mitali was empowered to take risks and explore new sides of a topic they are passionate about—finding options for fast and affordable E.Coli detection tests for water in underdeveloped areas. 

Working closely with MIT faculty members Marelli and Murcott was part of what made Mitali’s experience in the MCSC Scholars Program unique, productive, and valuable. She entered the program familiar with Professor Marelli’s work from a previous research experience, and was excited by the opportunity to continue their work together. Marelli helped with setting up specific experiments and identifying what reagents to use, and was always willing to explain the scientific underpinnings behind the results and keep the research moving forward.

Murcott provided the technical expertise specific to the water testing. Mitali’s research directly supports ongoing work by Murcott and the D-Lab surrounding the development of the E.Coli and Coliform Vial (ECC Vial) detection test, which was featured recently on MIT News. The ECC vial provides on-the-spot water testing for E.coli and coliform (two bacteria that can indicate fecal contamination in water supplies) and easy interpretation of results within 24-48 hours. Murcott provided high-level direction for the project and introduced Mitali to the ongoing testing happening in Nepal, where Mitali is traveling and researching this fall. 

This ECC vial that Murcott and her team developed is unique because it can test for E. coli on-site without the use of lab equipment. To work effectively, the water sample within the ECC vial must be incubated for 24 hours at body temperature in either a pocket incubator, a body belt incubator, or a portable mini-incubator. This type of water testing can help expedite the knowledge of whether or not water is contaminated. 

Mitali was inspired to support the ECC vial’s existing innovation, wondering if there were ways to produce results even more rapidly, without having to keep the water temperature consistent for 24 hours, to have an even greater impact on the communities the test serves. Building off the momentum of how the COVID-19 pandemic popularized rapid, at-home virus testing, Mitali began to think of how it can be applied within the environmental field through checking water quality for contaminants, especially for developing areas that need the most testing with the least amount of resources. This sparked the research that they conducted throughout the MCSC Scholars Program, with the goal of further developing the ECC vial into an even more accessible, point-of-care test. 

Mitali’s research first consisted of setting a baseline, which determined that the substrate X-Gluc, used to detect an enzyme that indicates E.coli is present in a sample, works faster with a pure enzyme than with whole bacteria. In an attempt to speed up the reaction time and minimize incubation temperatures, she tried breaking open the bacteria to release more enzymes and looked into creating paper-based tests coated with silk fibroin that stabilizes X-Gluc. While neither of these tests had the hoped-for effect on reaction time and incubation temperature, the information will be valuable in steering the direction of future research.

In August 2024, Mitali made their way to Nepal to collaborate with community partners and learn from local users. The trip continues a relationship that Murcott and former students have with Nepali communities; through the support of MISTI, Mitali has been able to participate in this ongoing exchange of information while contextualizing the work for herself. Through Murcott’s existing network, Mitali is working with two Nepali groups, Environment & Public Health Organization (ENPHO) and EcoConcern, to ensure that the voices of those directly using the test are incorporated into the design and development process.

Thinking about the real-world effects of their research, and informed by further conversations with locals, led Mitali to better understand that a scientist’s priorities do not always align with users’ priorities. “Even just from video calls with manufacturers in Nepal before visiting, we could see that the ideas and issues they were having with the technology and what they wanted out of an improved product was very different from what my mentors and I thought,” she continues.

Mitali’s priority is to make tests accessible to those who need it most—communities living in regions with underdeveloped water infrastructure. With the monsoon season already leading to large amounts of sickness due to flooding in these areas, as locals expressed to her, Mitali is seeing firsthand why immediate, reliable water sanitation testing is so vital.

In addition to considering location, it is important to assess and anticipate the ways climate change will alter the demand for tests in certain areas. As climate change increases, the frequency and severity of natural disasters, and the effects of monsoons, will too. These exacerbated events are expected in underdeveloped nations such as Nepal, underscoring the need for the improvements Mitali is supporting. Although local communities and organizations are working hard to address this issue by producing testing kits and training others, there is still a strong need for E. coli testing to be readily available and quick-acting, in the likely chance storms or flooding events cause drinking waters to become contaminated.

“So far in Nepal, I can confidently say that they have taught me a lot more about water testing and its practical application than I have been able to contribute towards any improvement of the ECC vial,” says Mitali. “I spent a year thinking about this challenge from a very scientific, research-driven perspective, but the members of the community are the ones who have spent decades testing and treating water for bacterial and other contamination.” 

After the trip concludes, Mitali returns to the United States to start a full-time position at a start-up working on new technology that aims to increase the reach of genetic sequencing. Mitali sees this biotechnology not only having an impact on the future of bacterial contamination detection but is hopeful the work she will be doing in her new position will help her better understand cutting-edge biotechnologies and how they can be made more affordable and accessible over time. Mitali would embrace the opportunity to revisit this research surrounding E. coli and water testing in the future, incorporating what she learned from the Scholars Program, her time in Nepal, and soon to be newfound knowledge from her first full-time position after graduating from MIT. 

This research was supported, in part, by the MIT Climate and Sustainability Consortium and the Class of 1960 Funds.