A Summary Catalogue of Microbial Drinking Water Tests for Low and Medium Resource Settings

International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health

Robert Bain¹  Jamie Bartram³  Mark Elliott³  Robert Matthews¹  Lanakila McMahan²  Rosalind Tung¹  Patty Chuang³ 

[1] Water and Health Research Centre/Merchant Venturers Building, University of Bristol, BS8 1UB, UK;Department of Environmental and Occupational Health, Florida International University, Miami, Florida, 33199, USA;The Water Institute at UNC/University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, North Carolina, 27599, USA;

关键词: drinking-water quality;    safe water;    microbial water testing;    faecal indicator bacteria;    Escherichia coli;    coliform test;    H₂S test;   

DOI  :  10.3390/ijerph9051609

来源: mdpi

【 摘 要 】

Microbial drinking-water quality testing plays an essential role in measures to protect public health. However, such testing remains a significant challenge where resources are limited. With a wide variety of tests available, researchers and practitioners have expressed difficulties in selecting the most appropriate test(s) for a particular budget, application and setting. To assist the selection process we identified the characteristics associated with low and medium resource settings and we specified the basic information that is needed for different forms of water quality monitoring. We then searched for available faecal indicator bacteria tests and collated this information. In total 44 tests have been identified, 18 of which yield a presence/absence result and 26 of which provide enumeration of bacterial concentration. The suitability of each test is assessed for use in the three settings. The cost per test was found to vary from $0.60 to $5.00 for a presence/absence test and from $0.50 to $7.50 for a quantitative format, though it is likely to be only a small component of the overall costs of testing. This article presents the first comprehensive catalogue of the characteristics of available and emerging low-cost tests for faecal indicator bacteria. It will be of value to organizations responsible for monitoring national water quality, water service providers, researchers and policy makers in selecting water quality tests appropriate for a given setting and application.

【 授权许可】

CC BY   
© 2012 by the authors; licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.