A dielectric barrier discharge (DBD) based light source has been developed for the sterilization of water. For this a single barrier DBD cell with quartz (low dielectric loss and high breakdown strength) as dielectric has been used. Six numbers of linear strips of titanium gold are coated using magnetron sputtering technique on the diametrical opposite portions of the outer surface of the quartz tube. A helical tungsten electrode has been used as cathode to which a pulsed high voltage signal has been applied to strike the discharge. The outer striped electrodes are grounded. In this paper an effort has been made to evaluate the germicidal effect of the developed DBD tube. A series of experiments have been carried and decontamination study of autoclaved water has been performed using air as a working gas. The developed DBD cell is non-toxic and has advantages over the other conventional methods like dry heat, auto clave, γ-ray irradiation. Sterilization of the E. Coli bacteria (diluted in water) has been performed using this DBD source and results are illustrated. © 2013 IEEE.