On the 28th of January, the Sensors for Water interset Group (SWIG) held a conference on 'The role of sensors in disinfection and microbiological monitoring' in the Ethiad Stadium, Manchester. In attendance were representatives from sensor manufacturing companies such as ATi, Metrohm, Process Instruments and Palintest, aswell as repersentatives from national and international research and develompment labs, regulatory bodies and some major consumers of water quality sensors like Severn Trent Water and Yorkshire Water.

Highlight Talks:

• Mike Strahand from ATi gave a presentation on 'The current status of chlorine monitoring in water', outlining the timeline of chlorine sensor development and todays issues or compromises in current technology.
• John Haley from Yorkshire Water gave a talk on the regulatory demands in the water supply service and the need for accurate realtime information to meet these demands and satisy customers, with particualr emphasis on pH and chlorine control and monitoring.
• Dr. Verena Kuntze, head of R&D at Kuntze, presented her companies lasted work on developing a chlorine sensor for drinking water. The sensor presented a possible way of in-situ cleaning which could overcome issues of electrode fouling, reducing maintenance and extending its useable lifetime.

Being fortunate to be in attendance, the presentations and workshops were a great opportunity to see the real challenges faced by the water services sector. It was also nice to put a face to industy and consumers of sensor technology that we work for every day to develop new sensor technologies.