Microbiology Analysis of Drinking Water

INTRODUCTION

Drinking water supplies are prone to contamination with sewage or other excreted matter may cause outbreaks of intestinal infections such as typhoid fever.

Monitoring and detection of indicator and disease-causing micro-organisms are a major part of sanitary microbiology. By chlorinating drinking water supplies, control of most major disease-causing bacteria can be obtained.
The major concern is about the inability to consistently remove viruses and protozoa and to achieve quality standards for these micro-organisms.

Bacteriological tests must be performed constantly to ensure that drinking water supplies are safe for human consumption.
Primarily contamination of water with human faecal wastes would result in viral, bacterial, and protozoan diseases. Although many of these pathogens can be detected directly, environmental microbiologists have generally used indicator organisms as an index of possible water contamination by human pathogens.

Researchers are still trying to establish the ideal indicator organism to use in sanitary microbiology.

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