Assessment of Microbial and Chemical Contamination in Re-Usable 18 Liter Bottled water Marketed in Tripoli City and its Suburbs

Abstract

The increasing population and limited drinking water, resources have enhanced the necessity of using bottled water. Transmission of the waterborne disease is a major concern of public health, and it is important to know chemical and microbial contamination of bottled water. This study was to investigate the microbial and chemical contamination in 18liters refilled water samples consumed inTripoli city and its suburbs. 40 samples of bottled water were collected randomly from ten different brands. All the samples meet standard of the WHO guidelines. The mean values of nitrate, nitrite, turbidity, Na+, K+ and pH parameters were 7.10 mg/l, 0.013 mg/l , 0.36 NTU, 8.60 mg/l, 0.32 mg/l and 7.64, respectively. Results showed that the mean and standard devation of total coliforms bacteria were detected in 14.42% bottles water. The high levels of microbial faecal indicators recorded in this study indicate the possibility that pathogenic microorganisms and parasites might be present in the 18liters refilled bottles currently offered for sale at the local market. Such a situation might pose a threat to public health. Since the bottles are of the re-usable type, thus, the reasons behind the high levels of contamination of most brands of bottled water included in this study could be due to inefficient cleaning and sanitizing of the bottles before refilling, utilization of water from unsafe sources and inefficient sanitizing of water.