Mokshika1, Shalini Thakur2, Tanu Jindal1,2
1Amity Institute of Environmental Sciences, Amity University, Noida- 201301, Uttar Pradesh, India
2Amity Institute of Environmental Toxicology, Safety and Management, Amity University, Noida- 201301, Uttar Pradesh, India
Abstract
People and ecosystems are threatened by health risks associated with poor water quality. Serious health disorders like diarrhea, dysentery, cholera, typhoid, etc. are caused by microbial contamination which is one of the major reasons for water pollution and poor drinking water quality. Physical, chemical, and microbial factors such as concentration of oxygen, amount of salt (salinity), or the amount of material suspended in water (turbidity), etc. are a few of the major qualitative parameters for safe drinking water. The health of water resources is getting worse all around the world and especially developing nations like India are the most adversely affected by it. India lacks both proper funding and means to deal with major issues like water pollution and the curses associated with it. There is an immediate need to work towards it because a country like ours with such a huge population is not ready to face water scarcity. It is of utmost importance to take necessary steps towards it both at the government and public level. This microbial study was performed in drinking water samples from different sources like Yamuna River water, municipality water, underground water, RO water, and packaged drinking water to analyze them for the presence of harmful microorganisms like E. coli, coliforms, fecal coliforms, yeast, mould, pseudomonas, Salmonella, and Shigella. The results indicated that Sample-1 Yamuna water was the most contaminated sample, followed by Sample-2 Groundwater. Sample-4 RO water was only contaminated by yeast, possibly due to a contaminated underground source. Sample-2 Municipality water was found to be completely contamination-free and fit for consumption due to chlorine treatment. No form of microbial contamination was found in Sample- 5 Packaged drinking water because of proper treatment under the BIS standards guidelines.
Keywords Water quality, microbial load, coliforms, Escherichia coli, fecal streptococci, salmonella, shigella.
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