A Field-Based Study of Alternative Microbial Indicator Tests for Drinking Water Quality in Northern Ghana By

Safe drinking water is essential for human survival, yet it is unavailable to over 1 billion of the world's people living in poverty (World Bank, 2009). The current methods used to identify drinking water sources are inadequate, with almost 40 percent of "safe " sources containing unsafe levels of microbial contamination (Joint Monitoring Programme (JMP) for Water Supply and Sanitation, 2010). Direct water testing is therefore necessary in order to accurately assess the safety of drinking water sources. The goals of this thesis are as follows: (1) To confirm the accuracy of the 20ml hydrogen sulfide (H2 S) test as a single presence/absence (P/A) indicator for fecal coliforms; (2) To establish the accuracy of as a single enumerative test for fecal coliforms; (3) To verify the accuracy of the 2