OVERVIEW
Water is a universal human need and universal human right. Our contribution to making this goal attainable for the ones who need it most shall not be second to commercial interests. We firmly believe that it is the responsibility of every member of society to contribute towards a more equal and sustainable world. We, therefore, designed and appropriated our project to tackle Sustainable Development Goal 6, Clean Water and Sanitation. We created a cell-free biosensor, that is cheap, mobile and easy to use and, thus, suitable to be used as water testing kits to detect hazardous substances in water. We intended to employ a simple, modular design that could be reproduced easily where it is needed most.
We have demonstrated very well how synthetic biology can be exploited to meet the SDGs: we primarily concentrated our efforts on applying the biosensor to detect water contaminants, which is our contribution to SDG 6: ‘Ensure availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all’. Billions of people around the world still lack access to water and sanitation services, with a severe lack of safely managed drinking water. Pathogens, antibiotics, metals and many more contaminants are found in water in many parts of the world. Our cell-free, modular, cheap and mobile water quality test kit is just one example of how efforts in synthetic biology translate to progress with regard to the Sustainable Development Goals. Many other current and previous iGEM teams have already demonstrated other ways to come closer to the SDGs: projects with applications in therapeutics, diagnostics, energy and environment.
We had an extensive at regulations, initiatives and policies, we contacted the UN and its multiple bodies and partners (FAO, AQUASTAT, GEMS/Water, WHO/UNICEF JMP) to understand their position on current SDG N6's issues.
Not only that we also engaged with other authorities in the areas
Apart from the SDG N6 and n3
Even if we did extensive work on the SDG N6 and SDG N3 that were closer to our project given the decision of the team to use the biosensor to fight environmental contamination in water sources but as discussed in the panel "Vision 2030 for UN Sustainable Development Goals & iGEM" we tried to avoid the silo mentality, in fact during our Human Practices we tried to tackle:
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the SDG 1 by making our biosensor as cheap as possible and by accounting hidden costs that could affect low-income counties (taxes, customs fee and tariffs, currency exchange rates, storage, etc)
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the SDG 4 by understanding how we could integrate the biosensor in biology classes and how our biosensor together with other tools could initiate public participation of the SDGs.
the SDG 9 by analysing how different infrastructures used to gather drinking water and process wastewater pose risks for people animals and the environment and by evaluating if our biosensor could be integrated into automated monitoring stations for water monitoring -- On the "innovation" side of the SDG 9 we analysed how our team and other iGEM team achieve innovative artefacts
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the SDG 10 by finding potential limitations in the use of our biosensor between different demographic categories (Illiterates, visually impaired, Wheelchair-bound, etc.) and potential limitations in communities given that people have different priorities (low-income countries: job-security, food security, affordable housing etc.) and different belief systems (Religious, Cultural, Political, etc.) that could hinder public participation in Environmental initiatives
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the SDGs 12 and 13 by making our biosensor eco-friendly by choosing e.coli extracts and paper to create a biodegradable test kit, moreover, the team drafted a partial life cycle assessment and life cycle energy analysis of the biosensor
the SDG 15 since early versions of the biosensors were designed to be applied in preserving plant biodiversity and assessing soil contamination
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the SDG 16 by designing a biosensor that could be easily be used by communities to make companies and governments accountable for environmental pollution, in this regard, we aimed to have a biosensor that could be accurate and reliable on par to laboratory tests and ISO Accreditation since in different legal system communities could press charges only with tests that are performed in compliance with international standards.
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the SDG 17 by providing an open template for the development of biosensor, since the early stage of the project we wanted to decentralise science and environmental agencies and health-care systems of low-income countries could rely on our design to produce PoC diagnostics and test-kits without relying on foreign companies and foreign-based/funded accredited laboratories
