MORE ON WATER TESTING

An expert in water testing tells me that the standards mandated by DOH to the LGUs and the private water concessionaires requires them to monitor the potability of drinking water only in relation to total microbial or plate count as well as the total coliform or fecal or e-coli count. He added that the DOH requires physico-chemical tests only twice a year, usually involving only 14 tests out of the 50 tests that could be done under the Philippine National Standards for Drinking Water (PNSDW). But the actual number of tests done would depend on the LGUs and the water concessionaires. The testing for mercury and other hazardous heavy metals are based on their requirements. Moreover, he says that all micro and physico-chemical standards in the PNSDW as implemented by DOH are all based on US and western standards. That could be a problem, because there could be contaminants present here that are not present in those foreign countries. In theory, all laboratories monitoring the water quality should be accredited by the DOH, otherwise their test results would be questionable. Right now, I could not find a list of these accredited laboratories, nor could I find a list of requirements that could qualify them to be accredited. If the tests are only conducted twice a year, what happens in between when there could be leaks in the system and illegal connections that could contaminate the system? IKE SENERES/01-04-2024