Microbial Quality of Water Used as Drinking Sources in Urban and Rural Households of Gujarat, India: A Cross-Sectional Study

INTRODUCTION: Globally nearly 2 billion people have no access to safely managed drinking water services and over 1.7 billion lack adequate or basic sanitation facilities. India is a growing and developing nation and the quality of ground water and drinking water needs to be regularly monitored. There are several diseases in India that spread due to contaminated water. Annually about 37.7 million Indians are affected by waterborne diseases. AIMS AND OBJECTIVES: This research has been undertaken with the Aim and Intent to study, test, assess, evaluate and understand the aspects of Microbial quality of water used as drinking sources in urban and rural households. MATERIAL AND METHODS: The 40 numbers of drinking water samples were collected.20 water samples from the urban area of Vadodara city and 20 water samples from the rural areas on outskirts of Vadodara city. Multiple Tube Fermentation Technique was used for detecting presence of coliforms. The free residual Chlorine was measured by use of Chloroscope equipment RESULTS: A total of about 17 water samples (11 rural samples of untreated water and 06 urban samples of treated water) showed a higher MPN. The growth of E. coli which indicates the fecal contamination rate was noted in 09 water samples which is about 22.50% (09 water samples - 06 rural samples and 03 urban samples). The absence of fecal streptococci, E. coli and total coliforms was found in only 6 samples which is about 15.00%. CONCLUSION: Pathogens, coliforms and other microorganisms were found in water samples collected from both urban as well as rural areas. It is now important to educate and bring awareness among local people about quality of their water source, the importance of clean surrounding near water source, boiling of drinking water to eliminate contamination. Key words: Fecal coliforms, E. coli, Chloroscope