A Study on the Microbial Quality of Drinking Water in Rural Areas of Mazandaran Province in North of Iran (2011)

Abstract

Backgrounds: One of the fundamental needs of a community is to have an access to healthy and safe drinking water. The lack of a concentrated accessibility to health facilities and services is among the serious problems facing villagers in the rural areas. The aims of this research was to investigate the drinking water quality of the villages in Babol township suburbs in north of Iran. Materials and Methods: In this cross-sectional descriptive study, a total of 140 water samples were taken from the water distribution network in16 villages for the low and high-rain seasons in sterile glass bottle. The microbial quality of gathered samples were determined based on standard methods in laboratory. Statistical analysis of the results was performed using a SPSS16 statistical software. Findings: Based on obtained results 13.6% of the samples were contaminated to coliform and 20% to fecal coliform bacteria. The residual chlorine in 12.5% of the samples were between 0.2 to 0.8 mg·L -1 and the PH in total samples were between 6.8 to 7.8. There were no signs of any contamination for 32.86% of the analysed samples which water resources is located to a distance of more than 30 m to the contamination sources. In addition, 43.1% of the samples taken from the water resources with no plumbing system, have had a fecal contamination. Conclusions: Considering the results achieved, the microbial quality of the drinking water of the studied villages classified as “moderate” status. For more water supply there is not sufficient residual chlorine in most cases. Poor sanitation of water supply is most causes of water contamination. It is therefore strongly recommended that sanitation measures are made to protect water resources from the contamination.