RESEEARCH ARTICLE
•Arrch Hyg Sci 2013;2(2):73-8
2
8
•Jourrnal Homepagge: http://jhygiiene.muq.ac.irr
Miicrobiiologiccal Qu
uality of Drrinkin
ng Waater in
n
R
Rural
A s of a City
Areas
C
a.
c,a
N
Nader
Youseefia,b, Amin
n Bagheria,bb, Nezam Mirzaei
M
*, Mohammaad Khazaeiid, Mehdi
e
Vosoughii Niri
Department of
o Environmenttal Health Enginneering, Schooll of Health, Tehhran Universityy of Medical Sciiences, Tehran,, Iran.
National Insttitute of Environnmental Researrch, Tehran Uniiversity of Meddical Sciences, Tehran,
T
Iran.
c.
Environmenttal Health Reseaarch Center, Kuurdistan Univerrsity of Medicall Sciences, Sanaandaj, Iran.
d.
Research Cennter for Environnmental Pollutaants, Qom Univversity of Mediccal Sciences, Qom, Iran.
e.
Department of
o Environmenttal Health Engiineering, Schoool of Public Heaalth, Ahvaz Junndishapur Univeersity of Mediccal Sciences, Ahhvaz,
Iran.
*
Corresp
pondence shoulld be addressedd to Dr. Nezam Mirzaei; Emaill: [email protected]
b.
A-R-T-II-C-L-E I-N
N-F-O
Article Notes:
N
Received
d: Jul 16, 20122
Received
d in revised foorm: Jan
15, 2013
3
Accepted: Aug 15, 20013
Availablle Online: Aug
A
17,
2013
Keyworrds:
Consum
mer Product Saafety
Disease Outbreaks
Drinkingg Water
Suburbaan Health Servvices
A-B-S-T-R--A-C-T
Background & Aims of thee Study: Lackk of access to safe drinking water can leadd to
undesirable aeesthetic problem
ms and adversee health effectss such as infecttious diseases. The
T
aim of this study
s
was to innvestigate the microbiologicaal quality of th
he drinking waater
distribution neetwork in Divanndareh City (Koordestan-westerrn Iran).
Materials & Methods:
M
This study was perrformed in a 122 months period
d from March 20011
to February 2012.
2
For purpposes of drinnking water resources qualityy measurementt in
Divandareh City,
C
samples from springs, deep and sem
mi-deep wells were
w
analyzed for
residual free chlorines,
c
turbiidity, total and fecal coliform
m. The size of samples
s
was 20
088
and the samplling was perforrmed accordingg to guidelines oof WHO for waater sampling. The
T
results were analyzed
a
using the
t Statistical software SPSS aand Excel and for
f the compariison
between averaage parameters ANOVA test were
w used.
Results: In 95%
9
of sampless, the residual free
f
chlorine w
was in the rangee of 0 to 0.5 mgg/L,
turbidity 0 to 1.8 NTU and total
t
and fecal coliforms 0 to 240 and 0 to 9.1
9 (MPN/100m
mL),
A
to ddata analysis, thhe chlorine residdual and turbid
dity had significcant
respectively. According
effect on the amount
a
of therm
mophilic coliforrms (P=0.047).
Conclusions: High rate of total
t
and fecal coliforms
c
in thee drinking wateer is due to failuures
i the water ressource, and lacck or failure in the
in the transpoort system, lackk of sanitation in
chlorination syystem.
Please cite
c this articlle as: Youseffi N, Bagheri A,
A Mirzaei N, Khazaei M, Vosoughi
V
Nirii M. Microbiiological Quality
of Drinkking Water in R
Rural Areas of
o a City. Archh Hyg Sci 20113;2(1):73-8.
Backgrround
The poopulation growth
g
of cities and the
improvemeent of life standards have
h
increaased
drinking,
inddustrial,
agricultuural,
and
recreationaal water nneeds. (1). Contaminants
may enterr the drinnking wateer because of
failures in the transpoort system, water
w
treatm
ment
ork and leadd to
system or the distribuution netwo
deterioratioon of waater qualityy and health
problems (22,3).
A large number off people in the
t developping
s
countries suffer insuufficient acccess to safe
w
(4). Lack of access
a
to safe
s
drinking water
drinking water
w
can leaad to undesiirable aesth
hetic
problems and
a
adverse health effects suchh as
infectious diseases m
mainly caussed by hum
man
and anim
mal entericc pathogen
ns, includding
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Archives of Hygiene Sciences
Volumee 2, Number 2, Sprig 20113
© 2013 Publisherr: Research Centeer for Environmeental Pollutants, Qom
Q
University of
o Medical Sciencces. All rights reserved.
73
Youseffi N, et al./ Arrch Hyg Sci 20
013;2(2):73-8
bacteria, protozoa,
p
an
nd viruses (2). Accord
ding
to the rep
port of thee US Centrre for Diseease
Control, ab
bout 780 diseases asso
ociated with
h the
consumptio
on of conttaminated drinking
d
water
w
outbreaks, have occurrred from 19
971 to 2006
6. In
addition, outbreaks
o
haave also hap
ppened in other
o
world partts such as Spain in the
t 1999–2
2006
periods (5)).
Commo
only, water quality in the
t point off use
is a crittical publicc health indicator (6).
According to World Health Organizaation
(WHO) definition
d
"drinking water"
w
is high
h
quality waater suitablee for human
n consump
ption
and other uses in thee home witth high quaality
water suittable for hhuman con
nsumption and
other uses in the hom
me while beiing availablle in
the commu
unity (7). Saafe drinking
g water sourrces
are piped in the houssehold wateer connectio
ons,
boreholes, protected
d dug weells, proteccted
springs, and rain
nwater co
ollection (8).
nal drinkingg water-quality monitoring
Internation
programs have been
n establisheed in orderr to
prevent or reduce the risk of diseease associaated
onsumption (6).
with pollutted water co
A main
n objective of the watter distribu
ution
network monitoring
m
iis to ensuree safe drink
king
water. Diffferent facctors affectt the bacteerial
growth in
n the distriibution sysstem includ
ding
concentratiion of disin
nfectant, co
oncentration
n of
biodegradaable dissoolved org
ganic carb
bon,
nutrient co
oncentration
ns, water teemperature and
disinfectan
nt residuals (9,10).
Howeveer, the baacteriologiccal quality of
drinking water maay be chaanged in the
distribution
to
hig
n
networrk
due
gher
temperaturres, depletio
on of disinfeectant residu
uals
and existen
nce of nutriients (9). Th
he maintenaance
of free reesidual chlo
orine is keey criteria that
ensure thee portabilitty of the water in the
chlorine feed distributiion systemss (6). Preseence
of turbidity
y in water can
c affect the
t disinfecction
process and
a
microobial inacctivation. The
permissiblee guidelinee for turbiidity based on
Iranian national
n
drrinking sttandard iss 5
Nephelomeetric Turbid
dity Units (N
NTU) (7). Raw
R
• Microbiologiccal Quality off Drinking Waater in Rural....
water treatm
ment may rresult in a decrease
d
in the
microbial load,
l
but in
n the distriibution systtem
secondary pollution could occcur and itt is
d as a majoor problem
m within many
m
recognized
water distriibution systtems (11).
Monitorring of the ddistribution network water
quality wiill allow designing efficient and
effective co
ontrol strateegies that will
w ensure safe
s
and high-q
quality drinnking wateer (12,13) and
protect con
nsumers froom illness and drinkiingwater relateed illness ouutbreaks (5). In this baasis,
WHO publlished "Emeerging Issuees in Water and
Infectious Diseases"
D
th
hat expresses the problem
of emergin
ng pathogenns and otheer aspects that
t
jeopardize water safety
y (5,14).
nt years, ssome studiies have been
b
In recen
performed on microbbial quality
y of drink
king
water disstribution network, for instaance
Dehghani et
e al., investigated the drinking water
quality off Shadegann township
p (Iran), and
Ghaderpoo
or et al., in S
Saqqez City
y (Iran) (1,7)).
Aims of
o the stud
dy: The ob
bjective of the
present study
s
wass to inv
vestigate the
microbiological quallity of drrinking water
distribution
n networkk in Div
vandareh City
C
(Kurdistan,, Western Irran).
Materiaals & Meth
hods
The po
opulation oof Divandaareh is 22842
people (in villages off this city there
t
is arou
und
55704 perssons) (20077) and it iss characteriized
by cold clim
mate (15).
The sam
mpling proggram covereed a 12-mon
nths
period from
m March 2011 to February
F
20
012.
Drinking water
w
resouurces in Diivandareh City
C
are springss, deep and semi-deep wells.
w
Becaause
all sourcess were used in the city as welll as
different sttorage sourrces, 2088 samples were
w
collected during
d
a 12 monthss period. The
T
choice of zones for the study was based on
archival daata and was selected baased on general
microbiological qualitty, age and turbidity
t
lev
vels
of the wateer and the construction
c
n and layou
ut of
distribution
n system thaat can be off importance in
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Archives of
o Hygiene Sciences
S
Volumee 2, Number 2, Spring 20013
© 2013 Publisherr: Research Centeer for Environmeental Pollutants, Qom
Q
University of
o Medical Sciencces. All rights reserved.
74
•Micro
obiological Quuality of Drink
king Water in Rural... ...
Yousefi N, et al./ Arrch Hyg Sci 2013;2(2):73-8
8
the bacterrial regrow
wth. Additional samp
pling
sites weree determinned in eacch village by
observing and inquirinng residentss about prim
mary
g of
household water souurces. Thee sampling
h City water waas perform
med
Divandareh
according to the guiidelines of WHO for the
pling (16).
water samp
At each
h site, water samples weere collecteed in
250 mL polypropyllene bottlle contain
ning
0.4 mL of a 10% soluution of sod
dium thiosullfate
a transpo
orted
(to neutraliize residuall chlorine) and
0
to laborattory in 6 h and 4 C.
C Before the
sampling, the samplinng bottles were steriliized
ve apparatu
us. Househ
hold taps were
w
in autoclav
used for th
he samplin
ng of resideential sites and
external atttachments were removed before the
sampling. Prior to thee sampling,, the taps were
w
flushed forr 2±3 min at full forcce. In ordeer to
determine the water quality, the free resid
dual
chlorines, turbidity, total and fecal colifform
minations were
w
were anallyzed. All the exam
performed according to Standarrd Methods for
the Examin
nation of Water
W
and Wastewater
W
(17).
Figure 1) Residuaal free chlo
orine in the
differentt months in
n the drinking water of
o
Divandarreh’s villag
ges
he results off turbidity rate
r
Figure 2 illlustrates th
in drinking
g water of D
Divandareh’s villages. The
T
results sho
owed that in 95% off samples, the
turbidity was
w in the range of 0 to 1.8 NTU
N
(Mean of 0.91
0
NTU aand standarrd deviation
n of
0.67).
a
Th
he results were analy
yzed
Data analysis:
using the Statistical software
s
SP
PSS and Ex
xcel
and for the compaarison bettween averrage
parameterss ANOVA
A test waas used. Free
F
residual chlorine was meaasured by a
colorimeteer kit on annually basis. Most
M
Probable Number
N
(M
MPN) was done on ninen
tube cultiv
vation basiis and turb
bidity test was
done using
g turbidimetter HACH®
®.
Resu
ults
The amoun
nt of residual chlorine in the drink
king
water disttribution sy
ystems of rural areass of
Divandareh
h in differrent monthss is shown
n in
figure 1. In 95% of
o samples residual free
w in the ran
nge of 0 to 0.5 mg/L (w
with
chlorine was
a mean of 0.074 mg/L
L and standaard deviation of
0.19).
Figure 2)) Average oof turbidity
y in differen
nt
months in
n drinking water of Divandareh
D
h’s
villages
In Figure 3, the amoount of totaal coliformss in
drinking water
w
of D
Divandareh’s villagess is
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Archives of
o Hygiene Sciences
S
Volumee 2, Number 2, Spring 20013
© 2013 Publisherr: Research Centeer for Environmeental Pollutants, Qom
Q
University of
o Medical Sciencces. All rights reserved.
75
Youseffi N, et al./ Arrch Hyg Sci 20
013;2(2):73-8
• Microbiologiccal Quality off Drinking Waater in Rural....
shown. Accordingly
A
y, the amo
ount of total
t
coliform in
n 95% of ttested samp
ples was in the
range of 0 to 240 (MPN/100m
mL) (Mean
n of
52.14 (MP
PN/100mL) and standaard deviation
n of
199.2 (MP
PN/100mL))).
Coliform(MPN/100ml)
150.00
120.00


90.00




60.00














30.00




0.00
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
Mounths
Figure 3) Average of
o coliform
ms bacteria in
ng water off
differeent monthss in drinkin
Divandarreh’s villag
ges
Figure 4 prresents the rresults of th
he thermoph
hilic
bacteria raate in the diffferent mon
nths in drink
king
water of Divandarehh’s villages. In 95%
% of
samples, the
t
amounnt of therm
mophilic fecal
f
coliforms was in tthe range of 0 to 9.1
(MPN/100
0mL) (Mean
n of 11.6 (MPN/100m
mL)
and standaard deviationn of 91.1 (M
MPN/100mL
L)).
50.00
Thermophilic
fecal coliforms (MPN/100ml)
40.00
30.00




20.00








10.00












0.00
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
Mounth
Figure 4) Averagee of thermo
ophilic feca
al
ms in differeent monthss in drinkin
ng
coliform
wa
ater of Diva
andareh’s villages
v
Discusssion
The amoun
nt of residuaal chlorine in the drink
king
water distrribution syystems of rural
r
areass of
Divandareh
h was in range 0 to 0.5 mg
g/L.
According to Iranian ddrinking waater guidelin
nes,
the optimu
um concenntration of free resid
dual
chlorine in
n any poinnt of wateer distributtion
network was
w in the rrange 0.5-0..8 mg/l and
d in
epidemic conditions
c
a disasterrs it must be
and
b 1
mg/l (18). Therefore,
T
iin this area,, the amoun
nt of
residual ch
hlorine is lless than standard
s
level.
This resultt is confirm
med by Ghaaderpoori ett al.
(1).
urbidity in the
The results showed that the tu
w
distribbution systeems was in the
drinking water
range of 0 to 1.8 N
NTU. Acco
ording to Iran
I
drinking water
w
standdards, the optimum and
Maximum Permissiblee Levels fo
or turbidity are
1 and 5 NTU
N
respeectively (19
9). The water
turbidity in
i sampless of this study was in
permissiblee levels. Th
hese resultss confirmed
d by
Ghaderpoo
ori et al and
d Dehghanii et al study
y in
Microbiolo
ogical qualiity of drin
nking waterr in
Shadegan town
t
ship Irran and Saq
qqez, Iran (1
1,7).
The amoun
nt of total coliforms in
n 95% of tessted
samples was
w
in the range of
o 0 to 240
2
(MPN/100m
mL). In tthis study in 95% of
samples, the
t
amounnt of therm
mophilic feecal
coliforms was in thhe range of 0 to 9.1
mL). Accorrding to WH
HO and Iran
nian
(MPN/100m
standards for drinkinng water, fecal bacteria
m not bee detectable in any 100
0 ml
indicators must
sample. In
n the case of large su
upplies, wh
here
sufficient samples
s
are examined, fecal colifo
orm
must not be
b present iin 95% of samples taaken
throughoutt any 12-moonths period
d. High ratee of
total and fecal
fe
coliforrms in the drinking water
can be duee to failuree in the tran
nsport systtem,
lack of san
nitation in w
water resourrce such as the
springs an
nd well, lack or failure
f
in the
chlorination
n system annd so on. This
T result is in
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Archives of
o Hygiene Sciences
S
Volumee 2, Number 2, Spring 20013
© 2013 Publisherr: Research Centeer for Environmeental Pollutants, Qom
Q
University of
o Medical Sciencces. All rights reserved.
76
74
Yousefi N, et al./ Arrch Hyg Sci 2013;2(2):73-8
8
•Micro
obiological Quuality of Drink
king Water in Rural... ...
concord with
w Dehghaani et al, Mo
omba et al., on
an overview
w of biofilm
m formation
n in distribu
ution
systems an
nd its impaact on the deterioration
d
n of
water quallity as welll as with Ilkka
I
et al.,, on
how pipeliine materialls modify th
he effectiven
ness
of disinfecctants in drrinking watter distribu
ution
systems
(7,20,21).
Furtherm
more,
lin
near
regression test was used to determine the
turbidity and
a
residuaal chlorine effects on the
amount off thermophilic coliform
ms in the water
w
samples in
n different months.
m
Thee coefficien
nt of
determinattion (R2 = 0.047)
0
show
ws that variab
bles
are indepeendent. Fo
or instance,, the chlo
orine
residual an
nd turbidity have no sig
gnificant efffect
on the am
mount of theermophilic coliforms. The
correlation
n between different months
m
and the
amount off the residual chlorine in all samp
ples
was evaluaated by onee-way analy
ysis of variaance
(ANOVA)) and post hock test. Although the
effect of ch
hanges for cchlorine aree not significcant
in comparrison betweeen differen
nt months (Pvalue=0.00
01), the ch
hanges for chlorine in
n all
months are
a
signifiicant. In addition, the
ANOVA test
t
was co
onducted to determine the
effect of different
d
m
months on th
he turbidity
y of
water saamples du
uring 2011. Althou
ugh,
according to Figure 3,
3 it can bee seen that the
average turrbidity leveel in Februarry is more than
t
other montths, the P-v
value = 0.99
9 demonstraated
that there was
w no sign
nificant diffeerence betw
ween
the differeent months and the av
verage turbiidity
levels meaasured in thee different villages.
v
According to obtained
d results in this
t study:

Thee amount of residuaal chlorinee in
drin
nking wateer distributiion systemss of
ruraal areas of Divandareh
h was less than
t
stan
ndard.

Thee water turrbidity in samples
s
of this
stud
dy was in permissible levels.
l

Thee amount off total colifo
orms in 95%
% of
testted sampless was higheer than stand
dard
level.

Lin
near regresssion test sh
howed that the
turb
bidity and residual
r
chlo
orine effects on
the amount of thermophillic coliform
ms in
the water sam
mples in diffferent mon
nths
are independennt.

Faillures in thee transport system,
s
lack
k of
sanitation in water reso
ource such as
spriings and well,
w
lack, or failuree in
chlo
orination syystem and so
o on are cau
uses
of high
h
rate to
otal and fecaal coliforms in
drin
nking waterr of Divandaareh City.
Footnootes
Acknowled
dgments:
The au
uthors wouuld like to
t thank the
environmen
ntal chemisstry lab of th
he Departm
ment
of
of Enviro
onment, K
Kurdistan University
U
Medical Scciences.
Conflict off Interest:
The auth
hors declaree no conflict of interestt.
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nces
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o Hygiene Sciences
S
Volumee 2, Number 2, Spring 20013
© 2013 Publisherr: Research Centeer for Environmeental Pollutants, Qom
Q
University of
o Medical Sciencces. All rights reserved.
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Youseffi N, et al./ Arrch Hyg Sci 20
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------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Archives of
o Hygiene Sciences
S
Volumee 2, Number 2, Spring 20013
© 2013 Publisherr: Research Centeer for Environmeental Pollutants, Qom
Q
University of
o Medical Sciencces. All rights reserved.
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