Abstract

Dodowa serves as a major peri-urban community close to the Accra Metropolis with increasing population, urbanization and settlements. Lack of access to basic infrastructural facilities including water and sanitation has hampered the development of the community. Dodowa has irregular access to pipe-borne water therefore the community resorts to other means of getting potable water. It is against this background that this study was conceived to assess the quality of drinking water sources in the community. Groundwater (Hand-Dug-Wells), stored water from pipes and mobile tanker water services were sampled to ascertain their quality since they were the major sources of water supply in the community. In all, 100 samples were collected for four months, 8 hand dug wells and 2 boreholes were sampled for groundwater, 10 stored water in either poly tanks or concrete tanks and then 5 mobile tanker water services were also sampled and physico-chemical and bacteriological parameters were assessed. The sources of water were also assessed to ascertain their quality. The available water sources in the Dodowa township could not be considered potable especially the groundwater which had high levels of turbidity, total dissolved solids (TDS), chloride, sodium and iron and therefore needs treatment before use. All the water sources had coliform bacteria which could cause water borne disease such as cholera, typhoid, dysentery and diarrhea thus unsafe for drinking without treatment.

Key words: Physico-chemical, microbiological, groundwater, potable water, water quality, Dodowa, coliform bacteria.