Water quality and distribution of drug resistant bacteria in tap, well and surface water samples of randomly selected areas in Bangladesh

Abstract

Water quality measurement is an inevitable requisite to identify weaknesses of the supply system, prioritize opportunities, identify measures to drive improvement, and improve healthcare services. In our study, we evaluated 15 water samples corresponding to tap, pond, lake, island, river, and sea waters. We evaluated water quality in terms of physicochemical parameters, total heterotrophic count (THC), and total coliform count (TCC), moreover, detection of bacterial isolates and their antibiogram. In most of the cases, tap and tube well waters showed decreased value for total dissolved solids, turbidity and electrical conductivity but in some cases, those showed indifference when compared with other surface water sources. The highest HPC and TCC were observed in the Buriganga river water that were 7.7×107 cfu/ml and 2.3×104 cfu/100 ml, respectively. A total of 9 bacterial isolates were presumptively identified when compared their physiology, colony and biochemical characteristics to the Bergey’s manual of systemic bacteriology. The most predominantly identified bacteria were E. coli and Staphylococcus aureus, and the less frequently identified was Vibrio spp. A degree of resistance to antibiotics was observed against most of the isolates. Among 9 of the isolates, 4 of the isolates showed complete resistance (100%) to amoxicillin and tetracycline antibiotics where, 4 of the isolates also showed complete sensitivity (100%) to only one antibiotic, azithromycin. It is needed to improve the quality of water sources as directly or indirectly, they are the major source of morbidity and mortality in a developing country like Bangladesh. It is also pivotal to knock the policy level to make or apply a mammoth regulation on antibiotic use and its release to the environment as there is no late to start a step ahead to seek for the betterment.