Onsite Microbiological Quality Monitoring of Raw Source Water in Cree Community of Mistissini

Abstract

Abstract Access to safe drinking water is a major concern for Canada's First Nations. The main objective of this report was to evaluate the microbiological quality of raw source water used for drinking purposes by the Cree people of Mistissini (Province of Québec, Canada) during summer 2005. Twelve environmental sites and 24 portable water containers used for domestic water collection and storage were sampled and submitted to microbiological determination of total coliforms, Escherichia coli, and Enterococcus sp. using membrane filtration and colourimetric standard methods. The results suggest that the microbiological quality of raw source water sampled from environmental sites is enhanced by storage practices of Mistissini inhabitants as microbial counts have shown a tendency to decrease upon storage and that the targeted fecal indicators (E. coli and enterococci) were quantitatively distributed independently from each other, especially with regards to the type of water source. In conclusion, even if the use of multiple indicators could offer better water quality monitoring, technological constraints limit the use of culture-based methods in such a remote area, underlining the importance of always boiling water from raw water sources before consumption.