Physicochemical and microbial quality of drinking water in slum households of Hawassa City, Ethiopia

Abstract

Drinking water quality and its public health effect are ignored in urban slum households of Ethiopia. The aim of this study was to assess physicochemical and microbial quality of drinking water stored in slum households of Hawassa City, Ethiopia. Cross-sectional study was conducted and a total of 120 water samples were collected from 60 households (60 tap, 60 households) to test the quality. Wagtech Potalab + PTW − 1000 was used to test the parameters. Physicochemical parameters—temperature, turbidity, pH and residual free chlorine were measured. Presence of total and faecal coliform bacteria was tested using the Wagtech membrane filtration procedure. Heads of the households were asked about the case of diarrhoeal diseases in any of their family members. Data were statistically analysed and compared with World Health Organization (WHO) standards. Paired t test was used to analyse the mean difference between tap and household water samples. Binary logistic regression was used to investigate any significant association between presence of faecal coliform in the water samples and occurrence of diarrhoeal diseases. Eight (13.3%) tap and 28 (46.7%) household water samples were found positive for total coliform; five (8.3%) tap and 19 (31.7%) household water samples were positive for faecal coliform. Eleven (18.3%) household water samples had faecal coliform 10–100 CFU/100 ml, which falls under high-risk category based on WHO standard. The paired t test (p < 0.05) showed significant mean difference between faecal coliform count of the tap and household water samples. The binary logistic regression analysis implied the odds for occurrence of diarrhoeal disease is 17.33 more in households with positive faecal coliform results (p < 0.05). It is concluded that there was a significant level of faecal contamination of drinking water at the household level. Therefore, it is recommended that continuous health education on drinking water handling should be given to slum households.