Efficacy of fast methods for Escherichia coli counts in drinking water of a depressed area

Contamination of drinking water is a major issue in depressed areas, especially in developing countries. Moreover, in such areas suitable conditions for the determination of E. coli using standard count plate methods could be missing. The level of water contamination and the operational conditions of a city in the Democratic Republic of the Congo were analyzed, and subsequently recreated in laboratory. We tested the efficacy of three fast E. coli detection methods in both optimal and operational conditions, and compared them to standard methods. The results showed that there were no significant differences between the various methods in the different conditions. Thus, fast methods can successfully be used, although a tendency to produce false negatives with low levels of contaminations should be taken in account.