A Didcot firm has won a unique award after developing a portable water testing kit that could potentially save millions of lives.

Severn Trent Services division, based at Southmead Industrial Park in Didcot, have designed, developed and manufactured the Eclox testing kit that can show if water is fit to drink in less than four minutes.

At the recent Institution of Chemical Engineers (IChemE) Awards for Excellence in Safety and the Environment, judges created a special category honouring the Eclox kit as an unusual and innovative product.

In declaring the special award for the kit, one of the judges said: "It could save more lives than the rest of the competition entries put together."

Director of Severn Trent Services at Didcot, Dr Rhys Lewis, said: "The technology was originally developed to monitor effluent discharges for industrial and environmental purposes.

"Interest then came from the military because of the need for armed forces moving into an area to be able to tell quickly if water is safe for drinking."

The water testing kit offers the capacity for humanitarian work in disaster relief zones.

What makes the Eclox so effective is the development of a special luminometer, an instrument that measures the amount of light generated from a reaction that takes place when chemicals are added to the water sample.

A wide range of toxic substances have a significant effect on this reaction and because the system measures light emission it is much faster than conventional methods.

The result can be used to determine what type of purification treatment is required.