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Martin Currie _ Aqueum gravatar image
RedR

This all depends on the type of water source - protected borehole, open well, rainwater harvesting, river or lake, etc. And the level of treatment it therefore requires.

The biggest issue in terms of water safety is likely to be biological contamination - bacteria, viruses and other microbes of faecal origin. Unfortunately biological testing is not particularly easy - delagua (https://www.delagua.org/) produce very well respected kits that do things the traditional way using appropriate technology for rural development and humanitarian use, however they are relatively expensive in terms of initial outlay.

There are also numerous test kits that will indicate presence or absence of one or more microbes, however some of these are two specific and won't catch everything & others may work out too expensive for regular testing.

In general you need to look at the source to determine the likely risks. If you are using surface water I would recommend disinfection with some form of chlorine. If you do this you can also monitor the chlorine concentration relatively easily (or even smell it) generally speaking if you still have chlorine present in a low turbidity water (less than 2 NTU) after 20 minutes of contact time then the chances are that you won't have an issue with bacteria or viruses.

Then there are many other potential chemicals (metals, pesticides, etc.) that may be in the water. I would recommend that you initially take samples for lab analysis in the nearest large city. From the results of these you should find out what you need to monitor more closely locally & specific kits could be recommended for these.

There are some things that are relatively quick and easy to measure that will give you a rough idea of whether your water quality is changing with time. Measures like turbidity, conductivity, pH.

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Added link to similar question

This all depends on the type of water source - protected borehole, open well, rainwater harvesting, river or lake, etc. And the level of treatment it therefore requires.

The biggest issue in terms of water safety is likely to be biological contamination - bacteria, viruses and other microbes of faecal origin. Unfortunately biological testing is not particularly easy - delagua (https://www.delagua.org/) produce very well respected kits that do things the traditional way using appropriate technology for rural development and humanitarian use, however they are relatively expensive in terms of initial outlay.

There are also numerous test kits that will indicate presence or absence of one or more microbes, however some of these are two specific and won't catch everything & others may work out too expensive for regular testing.

In general you need to look at the source to determine the likely risks. If you are using surface water I would recommend disinfection with some form of chlorine. If you do this you can also monitor the chlorine concentration relatively easily (or even smell it) generally speaking if you still have chlorine present in a low turbidity water (less than 2 NTU) after 20 minutes of contact time then the chances are that you won't have an issue with bacteria or viruses.

Then there are many other potential chemicals (metals, pesticides, etc.) that may be in the water. I would recommend that you initially take samples for lab analysis in the nearest large city. From the results of these you should find out what you need to monitor more closely locally & specific kits could be recommended for these.

There are some things that are relatively quick and easy to measure that will give you a rough idea of whether your water quality is changing with time. Measures like turbidity, conductivity, pH.

I'd suggest you have a look at the answers to this question too - as it is quite similar & a number of kits & resources are recommended: https://archive.knowledgepoint.org/questions/681/availability-of-cheap-and-simple-water-testing-kits/