“Comparative Bacteriological Contamination Assessment of Drinking water (Pipe water supply/hand pump) by three different methods in Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh”

Abstract

Water borne diseases like cholera, typhoid, diarrhoea, and jaundice are caused by consumption of
microbial contamination in water. For assessment and monitoring of drinking water quality, a group of bacteria
commonly referred as fecal Coliforms is normally taken as indicator. Most predominantly used method for
assessment of bacteriological quality of water in Public Health Laboratories is MPN method which measures
bacterial presence as MPN/100 ml of sample. Another method very predominantly used for field determination of
Bacterial contamination is testing by H2S Vials, however this is just an indicative test and has high probability of
false negative and false positive results. The significance of bacteriological testing in ensuring the quality of
drinking water, warrants for comparative analysis of different methods available for it. In this context tests were
carried out to assess the efficacy of BioMed devices (InTrayTM Colorex TM ECC) based on Membrane Filtration
Technique method through which both E.coli and total coliform can be identified separately by distinctive color
characterization and then counting them in calculative form as colony forming unit i.e. CFU/100 ml of sample in
a single experiment. A comparative assessment of drinking water of different sources carried out in monsoon and
post monsoon have been done to observe the variation in the result by different method of estimation like H2S
vials, BioMed devices (InTrayTM Colorex TM ECC) and Traditional Membrane Filtration technique indicates that
InTrayTM Colorex TM ECC applications are economical, less time consuming. It is also easier to use than
ampoules and petri dishes, which improves work flow and reduces sample exposure and contamination.