Microbiological and Physico-Chemical Quality Assessment of drinking water in Dehradun

Abstract

Over a sixth of the global total does not have access to clean drinking water. People in poor countries face a significant burden of diarrheal disease and other debilitating, life-threatening diseases due to a lack of adequate water. Fresh-water demand will continue to rise dramatically throughout the globe in the next years to satisfy the demands of rising people, developing economies, changes in lifestyle, and altering consumption behavior. It will also put even more strain on already scarce natural resources and ecosystems. As a result of overuse and water contamination, clean water has recently become a scarce fundamental commodity. In addition, the importance of new microbes in drinkable water has grown. Because of the serious implications of a drinking water source being polluted with pathogenic bacteria, prevention is important. The objective of this study is to find the quality of water whether or not it is suitable for drinking on the basis of physicochemical and microbiological assessment. In this study, we determine the water quality in terms of contamination rate such as chemical and microbiological to assure that the water we are drinking is safe for us as well as for other people. The testing was done as per IS 10500:2012 (Indian Standard) and APHA, USEPA for chemical and bacteriological analysis. The maximum numbers of chemical parameters were within the limits whereas this was not in the case of bacteriological parameter. The result of this study was that physical appearance is agreeable and disagreeable in some areas of Dehradun and in chemical appearance the amount of calcium is more than the limit and there is microbial contamination found in all water samples. From these studies, it is recommended that drinking water should be filtered and boiled. The water storage tanks should be washed in timely manner with chlorine tablets and chlorine liquid to avoid the contamination of water.