Determination of risk of diarrhoeal diseases in some areas of Serampore, Hooghly, West Bengal through potable water quality monitoring

Abstract

The epidemiology of diarrhea has been one of the most elusive problems in tropical countries. Scarcity of good quality water is considered as one of the major causes of enteric disease. A pilot study was undertaken to determine the quality of usable water from different drinking water sources like tap, tube well, stored and pond in some areas of Serampore, Hooghly, West Bengal. Samples were subjected to physico-chemical tests as well as enumeration of total coliform had also been undertaken. Altogether, 52 samples (15 tap water, 15 tube well water, 15 stored water and 17 pond water samples) have been collected and analyzed from different sources in the studied locality. Highest load of fecal coliform has been observed in pond samples (115-4800cfu/ml) followed by stored (10-2050cfu/ml) and tap/tube well (10-185cfu/ml).All the stored and pond water samples were found to be coliform positive, whereas 26% of total tap water samples were found to be coliform contaminated.