Hi Mary, A quick scour of ...

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Hi Mary,

A quick scour of the internet indicates that tapwater in Ghana is not safe to drink as is.

https://www.lonelyplanet.com/ghana/health

https://foundationbeyondbelief.org/news/drinking-water-ghana/

https://www.smartraveller.gov.au/destinations/africa/ghana

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Water_supply_and_sanitation_in_Ghana#Drinking_water_quality

Sealed bottled water is recommended for drinking.

If you are looking to treat the water yourself your three main concerns will be:

If you can get hold of a small reverse osmosis system this should deal with all of the above and will improve the taste of the water.

Something like this:

https://www.filteredwatersolutions.com.au/reverse-osmosis/

You will need decent water pressure to run the system (which you may not have in Ghana) and you will need to replace the filters/cartridges, typically every 6-12 months.

If you have to drink the tap water your primary concern should be pathogens (bugs) in the water these have the potential to make you very sick, very quickly. The pathogens can generally be killed (inactivated) by boiling the water.

Here is a quick note on how to boil water:

https://www.health.qld.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0022/630751/safe-water-poster.pdf

Boiling the water should deal with the pathogens but won't help in terms of the salty taste (might actually make it a little worse).

Your next concern should be in regards to chemicals/heavy metals in the water. These but won't make you sick immediately like the pathogens will. These are more difficult to remove without.  Boiling the water might get rid of some of the chemicals, but it wont get rid of the heavy metals.

So in answer to your questions:

  1. You won't be able to tell unless you have the water analysed. Used bottled water to cook if you can. If you can't use bottles water then use boiled water.
  2. You won't be able to tell unless you have the water analysed. Bathing in poor quality water is MUCH safer than drinking it. Try to limit your exposure by having short showers (even a bucket shower) rather than soaking in a bath.
  3. The fading could be due to a number of things. Given that it is groundwater it might contain iron and/or manganese which can discolour clothing. My advice would be to buy some cheap local clothing and ask the locals how they do their washing. Iron and manganese can be removed using pool chlorine, however, if you add too much you are likely to bleach your clothes.
  4. Your greatest risk is via drinking. Drink bottled water only. If you have to drink tap water make sure that you boil it before drinking. Get the water analysed when you can to find out if there is anything else in there that you need to be concerned about. It's probably not going to be cost-effective to treat water for your laundry.

If you manage to get an analysis done, let us know the results.

Regards,

Daniel