Water is essential to life and too often we take it for granted and just open a tap without realising all the hard work required to bring drinking water to our home. It usually takes lots of efforts in terms of manpower, management and monitoring to come up with an effective potable water to consumers. The principal aim of this study was to investigate the application of the Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) technique to detect indicator organisms in the potable water supplied by the Central Water Authority (CWA). Given the excellent tract record of PCR applications in agricultural, environmental and medical fields, it ,was hoped that the current method (Most Probable Number - MPN) utilised by the CIVA which can take from three to four days to identify and confirm the presence of the indicator organisms, could be significantly improved.
