Faecal contamination in water has significant health impact as Faecal Matter (FM) contain a variety of pathogens, coliform bacteria in particular.1 Currently used methods for detecting the presence of FM in surface water are time-consuming and expensive. The existing Schlesinger’s test for urobilin analysis in urine in an alcohol-rich medium has been tried for analysing urobilin (UB) and stercobilin (SB) in water, but with limited success, as the concentration of these pigments are rather low1,2. The limitations are due to (i) weak fluorescence of Zn(II) complexes of UB and SB in water, (ii) time dependent loss of fluorescence intensity and (iii) strong interference from the fluorescence of humic substances in surface water. We have carried out a detailed photophysical investigation of the FPs and FP-Zn(II) complexes to develop an efficient fluorescence based analytical methods for monitoring FM towards water quality analysis. Spectroscopic analysis of FPs and FP-Zn(II) complexes in aqueous and mixed aqueous media confirmed their aggregation behaviour.2,3 Various spectroscopic, thermodynamic and computational techniques were used to investigate the possibility of 1:1 and 1:2 stoichiometry of FP-Zn(II) complexes.4 Understanding the fluorescence behaviour of FP-Zn(II) helped us to propose an opto-analytical method using 1-hexanol as extractant, that enhances fluorescence intensity and minimizes dissolved organic matter fluorescence interference.5 By using a solid matrix containing Zn(II) salt, we developed a rapid analytical method for naked-eye detection of FM in water under 365 nm UV illumination.6,7 The identification of two different binding sites in FP prompted us to investigate the possibility of bimetallic complexation towards efficient lowering of nonradiative decay routes, thereby further enhancing the fluorescence intensity.8 We found that maximum fluorescence enhancement occurs at Zn(II):Gd(III) stoichiometry 3:2.8 This enabled achieving the detection limit up to nM concentration range, in addition to reducing the humic fluorescence interference.8