DETERMINATION OF Escherichia coli AND SOME PHYSICOCHEMICAL PARAMETERS OF SELECTED PIPE BORNE AND SACHETBOTTLED WATER IN ACCRA-

Water treatment describes those processes used to make water more acceptable for a desired enduse. These can include use as drinking water, industrial processes, medical and many other uses. In Ghana, water is the most common and cheapest drink one can afford. For this reason, drinking water is supposed to be clean and safe enough for human consumption. The goal of all water treatment process is to remove existing contaminants in the water, or reduce the concentration of such contaminants so the water becomes fit for its desired end-use. It is unfortunate that the safety of our drinking water is sometimes compromised. The practical project meant to analyze drinking water in certain locality in Accra, Ghana. These places included adenta, tema, TeshieNugua, lapaz, weija, Haatso, dansoman, kpong, dzowulu, bawleshie and legon campus. In the laboratory water undergoes basic quantitative and qualitative test. The processes involved in treating water for drinking purpose may be solids separation using physical processes such as settling and filtration, and chemical processes such as disinfection and coagulation. There are three basic analyses being performed during the treatment of water. This includes physical, chemical and bacteriological analysis. Factors like pH, turbidity, alkalinity, conductivity, total dissolved solids, suspended solids, colour, temperature and chloride are analyzed. Bacteriological analysis is also made to determine pathogens (bacteria) in water. All these towns recorded negative results which was within the WHO/GWDS limits except Legon campus and Teshie-Nuagua.Legon recorded positive results for Escherichia coli (1.2×102/ml) whilst TeshieNuagua recorded 6.3×103/ml of Escherichia coli. The chloride and conductivity measurements for Teshie-Nuagua was above the WHO/GDWS ranges.Nuagua recorded a chloride concentration of (286.00±0.02)mg/L as against 250mg/L WHO/GDWS standard.Also conductivity reading for Nuagua was (1596.0±0.1)µs/cm as against the 1000µs/cm.Chlorine gas and calcium hypochlorite is used to disinfect the water during processing. Periodic sampling is done in the distributing communities’ in order to check the quality of water at that point. Sample are collected and brought to the laboratory for physicochemical and bacteriological analysis. This project is centered on the quality of drinking water. It is meant to determine the physicochemical factors such as chloride in water(industrially in other way testing for residual chlorine),total hardness, conductivity, alkalinity, pH, suspended solids, turbidity, colour and bacteria(specifically Escherichia coli).Other bacteria such as the Enterobacter aerogenees,

Clostridium pefringes and Fecal streptococci can also be present in contaminated water. But only Escherichia coli is of interest in this project. To assess the quality of pipe borne and sachet water, each parameter was compared with the standard desirable limit(WHO ranges).The findings of this work may not only contribute to a better understanding of the chemistry of chemical wastewater treatment and therefore to an improvement of the process. The project also throws an insight on the applications of chemical principles such as acid-babe titration, pH determination, neutralization of carbonates and bicarbonates in water with acid (H2SO4) and Filtration as a method of the effective means of removing particles from water.