The disinfection efficiency of synthetic and real wastewater by means of UV-A and UV-C irradiation in the presence or absence of TiO(2) was investigated. A reference strain of Escherichia coli suspended in sterile 0.8% (w/v) NaCl aqueous solution was used as a synthetic wastewater, while real wastewater samples were collected from the outlet of the secondary treatment of a municipal wastewater treatment plant. E. coli inactivation was monitored both by the conventional culture technique and by the real-time PCR method. Culture method showed that UV-C irradiation (11 W lamp) achieved total E. coli inactivation of 100% within 3 min of photolytic treatment. On the other hand, UV-A (9 W lamp)/TiO(2); [TiO(2)]=200 mg L(-1) (i.e. best operating conditions) required 60 min to achieve total disinfection of the synthetic wastewater. Real time PCR revealed compatible results, regarding the better efficiency of UV-C. However, it showed different times of bacterial inactivation, probably due to the phenomenon of "viable but not culturable bacteria". Disinfection durability tests in the dark and under natural sunlight irradiation showed that there is cell repair when UV-C irradiation is used for synthetic wastewater disinfection. Regarding real wastewater it was observed that only UV-C irradiation was capable of totally inactivating E. coli population in short time. Comparing results obtained from both methods, real time PCR proved to be more reliable and accurate, concerning the bacterial detection and enumeration in aquatic samples after the application of UV irradiation.