Assessment of Bacteriological Quality of Drinking Water from Various Sources in TukarahTown,NE Libya

Abstract

The aim of this study was to evaluatedrinking water quality in 21water sourcescategorizedin three levels. Samples of water were collected from each source for bacteriological examination. The results show there was a significant difference between the three levels 1, 2,and 3 for total coliform and fecal coliform bacteria with p-values (0.026) and (0.003) respectively. Presence of total coliform and fecal coliform bacteria were not reported from level 3and was zero MPN per 100 ml. However, the high contamination by total coliform and fecal coliform bacteria were observed in samples collectedfrom levels 1 and 2, these were in the range of2to 350 MPN/100 ml, 2to 26 MPN/100 ml respectively. On the other hand, the biochemical identification process using Phoenix identified technique for the six isolated strains as Cedecea lapagel(DW4), Citrobacter freundii(DW9), Ochrobacterum anthroi(DW10) Pseudomonas aeruginosa(S10), Stenotrophomonas maltophilia(DW4) and Streptococcus anginosus(DW2), with confidence value identities of 90%, 99%, 90%, 95%, 99% and 91% respectively. The findings showed that water from levels 1 and 2 did not conform to the world health organization (WHO) standard in terms of suitability for drinking purpose.