Public drinking water contamination pattern in South Eastern part of Rajasthan: A retrospective study

Most of the infection in community of developing countries are due to drinking of contaminated water. Which may cause diseases like diarrhoea, dysentery, jaundice etc. The supply of clean drinking water is a challenge and still most of the part in country depends on the ground water for drinking and other purposes. The microorganisms which are used as indicator of faecal contamination are enteric organisms which present in large numbers in gut, like Escherichia coli (E.coli) and Enterococcus species. The present study was done on water sample received from entire district of Kota Rajasthan for bacteriological analysis. The present study was done in Microbiology department Government Medical College Kota Rajasthan. This a retrospective observational study based on results obtained for coliform count in water samples from various sources (tap, tube well, open wells etc.). Water samples were tested by multiple tube method for coliform count and results were shown as most probable number (MPN) of coliforms per 100 ml of water sample. The present study is done retrospectively on record of sample reports, from last one year from June 2015 to June 2016.total 1279 water samples were tested and among them 598 (46.75%) samples were from rural area and 681 (53.24%) samples were from urban area. On testing 639 (49.96%) samples were found excellent, 448 (35.02%) satisfactory and 192 (15.01%) were found unsatisfactory. Among 192 unsatisfactory samples 62 (32.29%) was from urban area and 130 (67.7%) was from rural area. The main organism causing water contamination was E.coli 177 (92.18%). In present study unsatisfactory result was more in ground water samples from rural area this might be due to seepage of surrounding contaminated surface water and improper drainage system in rural setup. More stress should be given to prevent the contamination of traditional sources of water like ponds, lakes, deep wells etc.