Citizen empowerment to water quality monitoring by SERS – CitizenSERS

Aquatic environments are under constant pressure from contaminant emissions arising from all human activities. However, there is a massive gap in contaminant monitoring, globally. The analytical capabilities to measure these contaminants do exist but they are too expensive and not accessible or not affordable enough to emerging countries, isolated areas or citizen groups. This situation hinders the sustainable and just management of water resources. At the MSC laboratory, a frugal method for quantifying aquatic contaminants has been developed, which is intended to replace outsourced measurements. The method is based on an outstanding but yet untapped technique for environmental analysis: surface-enghanced Raman scattering. SERS relies on a portable instrument, and sample processing procedures that can be carried out directly on field by non-experts.
The objective of this proposal is to empower citizen groups to carry out participatory campaigns to measure water quality, in Brittany and Seine et Marne. Two action research campaigns responding to the challenges of local communities will be carried out in these two territories.