Assessment of Bacteriological Quality of Drinking Water in Some Primary and Secondary Schools in Mukalla City-Hadhramout/Yemen

Abstract

Assessment of feacal contamination and detection enumeration of coliforms and other microorganisms in water is one of the measurements to determine hygienic quality of water. This study aimed to assess the drinking water in some primary and secondary schools in Mukalla city-Hadhramout/Yemen to estimate the bacterial contamination of drinking water and its safety to public.The water samples were studied for bacteriological analysis in which inoculated into culture media using two methods, the presumptive test for the most probable number (MPN) and confirmatory test for bacterial identification. Also, some physiochemical properties of water such as temperature, total dissolved salts (TSS), electrical conductivity, hydrogen ion concentration (pH) and turbidity were measured and compared with criteria of Yemeni and World Health Organization (WHO) qualifications. This study revealed that the bacterial pollution of drinking water was showed in 8 schools with Escherichia coli 33%, coliforms of Proteus spp. 25% and Citrobacter spp. 17% and Staphylococcus spp. 25%.In conclusion, this study showed that if the values of total dissolved salts, electrical conductivity, temperature, pH and turbidity increased in water, the bacterial number in
water also increased, and the bacterial pollution indicates inadequate drinking water and the need to be treated and filtered.