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

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          Abstract

          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.

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          Estimation of bacterial densities by means of the "most probable number".

          Lauren Cochran (1950)
          Article 0 comments Cited 106 times – based on 0 reviews     Review now
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            Global Access to Safe Water: Accounting for Water Quality and the Resulting Impact on MDG Progress

            Kyle Onda, Joe LoBuglio, Jamie Bartram (2012)
            Monitoring of progress towards the Millennium Development Goal (MDG) drinking water target relies on classification of water sources as “improved” or “unimproved” as an indicator for water safety. We adjust the current Joint Monitoring Programme (JMP) estimate by accounting for microbial water quality and sanitary risk using the only-nationally representative water quality data currently available, that from the WHO and UNICEF “Rapid Assessment of Drinking Water Quality”. A principal components analysis (PCA) of national environmental and development indicators was used to create models that predicted, for most countries, the proportions of piped and of other-improved water supplies that are faecally contaminated; and of these sources, the proportions that lack basic sanitary protection against contamination. We estimate that 1.8 billion people (28% of the global population) used unsafe water in 2010. The 2010 JMP estimate is that 783 million people (11%) use unimproved sources. Our estimates revise the 1990 baseline from 23% to 37%, and the target from 12% to 18%, resulting in a shortfall of 10% of the global population towards the MDG target in 2010. In contrast, using the indicator “use of an improved source” suggests that the MDG target for drinking-water has already been achieved. We estimate that an additional 1.2 billion (18%) use water from sources or systems with significant sanitary risks. While our estimate is imprecise, the magnitude of the estimate and the health and development implications suggest that greater attention is needed to better understand and manage drinking water safety.
            Article 0 comments Cited 85 times – based on 0 reviews     Review now
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              Detection and enumeration of coliforms in drinking water: current methods and emerging approaches.

              Annie Rompré, Pierre Servais, Julia Baudart … (2002)
              The coliform group has been used extensively as an indicator of water quality and has historically led to the public health protection concept. The aim of this review is to examine methods currently in use or which can be proposed for the monitoring of coliforms in drinking water. Actually, the need for more rapid, sensitive and specific tests is essential in the water industry. Routine and widely accepted techniques are discussed, as are methods which have emerged from recent research developments.Approved traditional methods for coliform detection include the multiple-tube fermentation (MTF) technique and the membrane filter (MF) technique using different specific media and incubation conditions. These methods have limitations, however, such as duration of incubation, antagonistic organism interference, lack of specificity and poor detection of slow-growing or viable but non-culturable (VBNC) microorganisms. Nowadays, the simple and inexpensive membrane filter technique is the most widely used method for routine enumeration of coliforms in drinking water.The detection of coliforms based on specific enzymatic activity has improved the sensitivity of these methods. The enzymes beta-D galactosidase and beta-D glucuronidase are widely used for the detection and enumeration of total coliforms and Escherichia coli, respectively. Many chromogenic and fluorogenic substrates exist for the specific detection of these enzymatic activities, and various commercial tests based on these substrates are available. Numerous comparisons have shown these tests may be a suitable alternative to the classical techniques. They are, however, more expensive, and the incubation time, even though reduced, remains too long for same-day results. More sophisticated analytical tools such as solid phase cytometry can be employed to decrease the time needed for the detection of bacterial enzymatic activities, with a low detection threshold. Detection of coliforms by molecular methods is also proposed, as these methods allow for very specific and rapid detection without the need for a cultivation step. Three molecular-based methods are evaluated here: the immunological, polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and in-situ hybridization (ISH) techniques. In the immunological approach, various antibodies against coliform bacteria have been produced, but the application of this technique often showed low antibody specificity. PCR can be used to detect coliform bacteria by means of signal amplification: DNA sequence coding for the lacZ gene (beta-galactosidase gene) and the uidA gene (beta-D glucuronidase gene) has been used to detect total coliforms and E. coli, respectively. However, quantification with PCR is still lacking in precision and necessitates extensive laboratory work. The FISH technique involves the use of oligonucleotide probes to detect complementary sequences inside specific cells. Oligonucleotide probes designed specifically for regions of the 16S RNA molecules of Enterobacteriaceae can be used for microbiological quality control of drinking water samples. FISH should be an interesting viable alternative to the conventional culture methods for the detection of coliforms in drinking water, as it provides quantitative data in a fairly short period of time (6 to 8 h), but still requires research effort. This review shows that even though many innovative bacterial detection methods have been developed, few have the potential for becoming a standardized method for the detection of coliforms in drinking water samples.
              Article 0 comments Cited 78 times – based on 0 reviews     Review now
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                Author and article information

                Journal
                Journal ID (nlm-ta): Int J Environ Res Public Health
                Journal ID (iso-abbrev): Int J Environ Res Public Health
                Journal ID (publisher-id): ijerph
                Title: International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health
                Publisher: MDPI
                ISSN (Print): 1661-7827
                ISSN (Electronic): 1660-4601
                Publication date (Electronic): 04 May 2012
                Publication date (Print): May 2012
                Volume: 9
                Issue: 5
                Pages: 1609-1625
                Affiliations
                [1 ]Water and Health Research Centre/Merchant Venturers Building, University of Bristol, BS8 1UB, UK; Email: robert.bain@ 123456bristol.ac.uk (R.B.); rob.matthews@ 123456bristol.ac.uk (R.M.); roztung@ 123456gmail.com (R.T.)
                [2 ]The Water Institute at UNC/University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, North Carolina, 27599, USA; Email: jbartram@ 123456unc.edu (J.B.); elliottm@ 123456email.unc.edu (M.E.); pchuang@ 123456email.unc.edu (P.C.)
                [3 ]Department of Environmental and Occupational Health, Florida International University, Miami, Florida, 33199, USA; Email: kmcmahan@ 123456gmail.com
                Author notes
                [* ]Author to whom correspondence should be addressed; Email: stephen.gundry@ 123456bristol.ac.uk ; Tel.: +44-117-331-5296; Fax: +44-117-331-15297.
                Article
                Publisher ID: ijerph-09-01609
                DOI: 10.3390/ijerph9051609
                PMC ID: 3386575
                PubMed ID: 22754460
                SO-VID: 4f77baf4-2652-4ad4-89eb-0884ac8b2d64
                Copyright © © 2012 by the authors; licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.
                License:

                This article is an open-access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution license ( http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/).

                History
                Date received : 29 February 2012
                Date revision received : 17 April 2012
                Date accepted : 17 April 2012
                Categories
                Subject: Article

                ScienceOpen disciplines: Public health
                Keywords: faecal indicator bacteria,coliform test,h2s test,drinking-water quality,safe water,microbial water testing,escherichia coli
                Data availability:
                ScienceOpen disciplines: Public health
                Keywords: faecal indicator bacteria, coliform test, h2s test, drinking-water quality, safe water, microbial water testing, escherichia coli

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