Comparative Microbial Examination of Household Drinking Water and Water Filtration
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.54692/lgujls.2025.0901389Keywords:
drinking water, Escherichia coli,, filtered water, Microbiological contamination, spread plate method, bacterial contaminants, ColiformsAbstract
Water is an essential element for survival on earth. Poor water quality is one of Pakistan's biggest health concerns and environmental issues. Drinking water quality has become worse due to microbial and chemical contamination in water supplies
and groundwater. To evaluate contamination, the standard plate count method, spread plate method, most portable number (MPN), and kit method were used. In the spread plate method, a specific amount of sample was poured and spread by the
sterilized spreader evenly on the agar medium. The petri plates were incubated at 37° Celsius for 24 hours. After 24 hours,
colonies were enumerated with the help of the colony counter. In the kit method, the sample water inoculated in the reagent vile
showed characteristics of color if it was contaminated with coliforms. 70.36% of the household samples and 28.35% of filtered water samples were found with total coliform bacterial contaminated ions when compared with National Standards for
Drinking Water Quality. In contrast to the Nestle mineral water, boiling water did not uncover any coliform bacterial colonies or
other microorganisms. Hard and cloudy drinking water was encountered. Regulatory agencies must carefully examine drinking water sources for microbial contamination to prevent dangers to the public's health.
