Bacteriological Assessment of Drinking Water Sources of Selected Barangays of Barobo, Surigao del Sur, Philippines

In rural areas all over the world, the major environmental health problem remains with contaminated drinking water. In Barobo, Surigao del Sur, Philippines, diarrhea cases remain in the top 10 leading causes of morbidity in the municipality despite active drinking water quality monitoring of the Local Government Unit. However, this did not show the association of drinking water and the incidence of this diarrhea cases. This study was conducted to assess bacteriologically the quality of drinking water sources of Barobo, Surigao del Sur, Philippines. The study was conducted in five selected barangays of Barobo with the most number of recorded diarrhea cases were selected for this study. A total of 62 samples were collected both during wet and dry days from different sampling sites of the drinking water sources present in the study barangays and were examined for fecal coliforms. All samples collected were subjected to bacteriological analysis using the multiple tube fermentation technique and the fecal coliform test. From the total samples collected, 34% have unacceptable results for fecal coliform test. Based on the Philippine National Standard for Drinking Water, water with unacceptable fecal coliform test result or >1.1 MPN/100mL of water is unsafe for human consumption as it can be of health risk. This result is due to the fact that the water source from one of the water supply systems and the deep wells found in the barangays do not have any water treatment while the unsanitary handling practices of the water refilling stations probably contributed to the unacceptable results observed in their sealed water containers. Thus, water from these water sources is unsafe for human consumption.

Keywords –bacteriological assessment, coliforms, water contamination