Accuracy Investigation of Engineers Without Borders Water Quality Field Testing Kit (WaFTK)

Over 750 million people in the world are without access to clean water, resulting in high risk of disease and countless working hours lost. In Ethiopia for instance, as much as 56% of the population is affected. The Great Lakes Region of Engineers Without Borders (EWB-GLR) is working to meet this need by implementing hundreds of water projects worldwide. In 2013, EWB-GLR developed a shared water quality field testing kit to reduce the amount of time and donated financial resources used to obtain water quality testing equipment. The standardized kit, consisting of durable and very portable components can quickly and accurately test water samples in the field. The kit was thoroughly reviewed by students and professional engineers, finalized, rented to five chapters in one year, and presented at the humanitarian engineering session of WEFTEC 2013, where it enjoyed much from both students and practicing engineers. A question that was heard repeatedly from numerous visitors to the poster was „How accurate is this field testing kit?‟Although the chosen testing equipment‟s accuracy is advertised and designed by their manufacturers, the EWB kit was not designed to produce lab-quality results but instead to quickly characterize water sources in inclement field conditions. Nonetheless, accuracy and precision are important issues worth looking into to ensure that EWB projects are truly providing potable water. Therefore, a controlled experiment will be performed by qualified testers using water from multiple sources to compare the results of the water quality field testing kit to a well-equipped professional lab. This poster will present the results of this analysis and investigate reasons for any potential differences. The end result will be evaluation, then refinement of the EWB-GLR water quality testing field kit to increase the impact of EWB‟s 350+ projects towards reducing the need for clean water worldwide.