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Life Science Archives (LSA)

ISSN: 2454-1354
Volume 1; Issue - 2; Year 2015; Page: 78 - 83

Research Article
ASSESSMENT OF DRINKING WATER QUALITY FROM VARIOUS SOURCES IN
SUNDARAPERUMAL KOIL, A VILLAGE IN
THANJAVUR DISTRICT
R. Krishnaveni*,
PG Department of Microbiology, A.V.C College (Autonomous), Mayiladuthurai, Tamil Nadu, India.
Abstract
Water is essential for the well being of mankind and for sustainable development. The provision of
safe drinking water is one of the most effective and permanent technologies for improving the health of the
people. People in several parts of India face an immense challenge to meet the basic needs of water. The
crisis is not due to the lack of fresh water as such, but the availability of adequate quality water at the right
place and time to meet basic needs. In this study, the presence of indicators of pollution, namely the faecal
coliforms, total coliforms were used to detect the microbial quality of drinking water from various sources.
The present study undertaken in the village of Sundaraperumal koil, near Kumbakonam, Tamilnadu, reveals
that most of the drinking water sources are highly contaminated. The tap waters supplied by the local
governing body is found to be much contaminated with coliforms and faecal coliforms when compared to the
other water sources followed by the pond water, well water and river water.
Article History
Received : 15.03.2015
Revised : 27.03.2015
Accepted : 01.04.2015
1. Introduction

Key words: Drinking water, Potability, Coliform,

MPN technique, pH, Hardness, Chloride content
and Chemical oxygen demand.

Water is a prime natural resource and a

basic human need and a precious national asset.
Water, in addition to being a vital nutrient, is
involved in many aspects of human metabolism.
There can be no state of positive community
health and well being without safe drinking water
supply. Water intended for drinking purpose
should not only be safe but also wholesome.
Water that is free from pathogens and other
chemical contaminants is generally referred as
safe drinking water. Therefore supply of potable
water is essential for good health of the human
beings. Globally, 1.1 billion people rely on unsafe
drinking water sources from lakes, rivers and the
* Corresponding author: R. Krishnaveni
Tel.: +91-9894480674
E-mail: rkvenimb@gmail.com

open wells. The majorities of them are in Asia and

Africa (World Health Organization, 2003).
In India, though access to drinking water
has increased over the past decade, the tremendous
adverse impact of unsafe drinking water on health
continues. The study area chosen for this analysis
is Sundaraperumal koil, a village in Thanjavur
district, Tamilnadu that is located 10 kms away
from Kumbakonam. The population of this village
is nearly 8000. Agriculture is the main occupation
of the people, and it is more oriented towards
floral cultivation. The people in this village mostly
depends on the underground water and tap water
supplied by the local Panchayat and a few depend
on rivers and ponds also. This study aims at
analyzing the microbial quality of various drinking
water sources and helps the people to be aware of

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R. Krishnaveni/Life Science Archives (LSA), Volume 1, Issue 2, Page 72 to 77, 2015

the water they drink. Various pollution parameters
such as COD, chloride, hardness, total coliforms
and faecal coliforms were determined to check the
potability of water from various water sources.
2. Materials and Methods
2.1. Sample collection
The water samples for the analysis were
collected from selected bore wells designated as
(B1, B2, B3), tap water sources (T1, T2, T3), river
water sources (R1, R2), a pond water sources (P1,
P2) and well water sources (W1,W2) in
Sundaraperumal koil village, Tamilnadu state,
India. Water samples were collected in sterile
containers and transported to the laboratory within
half an hour.
2.2. Physico - chemical parameters
The various physico-chemical parameters
namely the pH, COD, hardness, and chloride
content of the collected water samples were
examined as per the Standard methods for the
detection of water and waste water (APHA, 1995).
2.3. Microbiological parameters
2.3.1. Standard plate Count (SPC) technique
The collected water samples were
subjected for the enumeration of viable microbial
cells. Pour plate technique was performed and the
cultures were Gram stained and other routine
traditional and classical biochemical tests were
performed as confirmatory tests (Gerhardt et al.,
1994).
2.3.2. Most
Technique

Probable

Number

(MPN)

This method is also called as multiple tube

fermentation technique. This technique is used to
detect the total coliforms. The test was performed
sequentially in three stages namely the
presumptive, confirmed, completed tests. The
tubes that show positive result for the above
presumptive tests were streaked on EMB agar
plates for faecal coliform count and on KF
Streptococcal agar plates for faecal Streptococcal
count.

79

3. Results and Discussion

The normal desirable limit of pH in
drinking water is between 7- 8.5. Most of the
water samples show a pH between the normal
limit except the bore water showing a high pH of
8.8 and 8.5 in both the cycles. The well water
recorded a least pH of 7.61 and 7.33 in the first
and the second cycle respectively (Table -1).
According to WHO, the COD should be 10
mg/l. The river water samples R1 and R2 and the
well water sample recorded a high COD value of
12 - 15 mg/l in both the cycles, where as the COD
of the rest of the water samples is between 2 and 3
mg/l in both the cycles (Table - 1).
Hardness of drinking water is also another
parameter to be analyzed. The desirable limit is
100 ppm. The pond water recorded a highest
hardness value of 312 and 269 ppm in the first and
second cycle respectively followed by the B1 that
shows a value of 269 ppm. T1 & T2 had similar
hardness value ranging from 150 to 280 ppm, the
bore well water from 150 to 270 ppm, and well
water sample had a hardness value of about 177
ppm (Table - 1).
Generally chloride may gain entrance to
the water sources either by disinfections or by the
runoff from farmlands and also by the human
activities. The chloride content in the drinking
water should be less than 0.5mg/l as per the WHO
standards. All the samples have very low chloride
content in the range of 0.01 to 0.05 g/l and they
show a negligible value (Table - 1).
The number of colonies from the water
sample designated as T2, is found to be highest
among the other water samples recording about
191 106 cfu/ml in the first cycle and about 210
106 cfu/ml in the second cycle. Next to the T 2
sample is the water from the taps T1and T3. These
samples also hold high number of SPC after the
tap water sample that was collected from the
middle connection of the water tank. The Bore
well water sample B1 has the lowest SPC of about
10 106 cfu/ml and 7 106 cfu/ml in the first and
second cycle respectively. When compared to the
tap water samples, the SPC for the samples
collected from the rivers, wells is comparatively

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R. Krishnaveni/Life Science Archives (LSA), Volume 1, Issue 2, Page 72 to 77, 2015

less. The pond water has a colony count of 18
106 cfu/ml in the first cycle and 60 106 cfu/ml in
the second cycle respectively (Table -2).
The coliforms in each water sample are
being detected. It was found that the water sample
collected from the tap water designated T 2 shows a
high number of coliforms about 1100/100 ml and
an equal number is seen with that of the river
waters R1 & R2, Pond water P, and well water W.
The Bore well water B1 shows a least coliform
count of about 39/100ml.

80

The rest of the water samples namely the

B2, B3, T1, T2 shows levels of coliforms around
240/100ml.The above said report is for the first
cycle. In the second cycle, the water samples
designated as R1, R2, P, W and T1 recorded a
similar maximum count of 1100 coliforms/100ml.
B1 being the least of about 150/100ml of the water
sample. The Bore well water designated as B3 has
a rise in coliform count in T1 from 150 to
240/100ml of the sample and there is a decrease in
B2 from 240 to 150 coliforms/100ml of the water
sample (Table - 2).

Table 1: Physico chemical properties of the water samples collected from various sources in
Sundaraperumalkoil, Kumbakonam
pH
S.
No

Samples

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10

B1
B2
B3
T1
T2
T3
R1
R2
P
W

Note:
B1 B2 B3 T1 T2 T3 R1 R2 P W -

First
cycle
8.80
7.90
7.90
8.22
8.52
7.90
7.85
7.90
7.85
7.61

Second
cycle
8.50
7.84
7.83
8.21
8.00
8.50
7.80
7.89
7.79
7.33

COD
mg/l
First Second
cycle
cycle
2
2
2
3
2
3
3
2
3
2
2
3
12
14
15
12
2
3
12
15

Hardness
Ppm
First Second
cycle
cycle
269
250
260
269
182
182
154
275
245
154
154
154
182
154
177
180
312
269
177
177

Chloride content
g/l
First
Second
cycle
cycle
0.034
0.032
0.032
0.032
0.032
0.034
0.018
0.023
0.023
0.022
0.022
0.018
0.023
0.023
0.018
0.022
0.044
0.034
0.023
0.022

Bore well water collected from the northern side of the village
Bore well water collected from the eastern side of the village
Bore well water collected from the southern side of the village
Tap water collected from the first connection point of the water tank
Tap water collected from the middle connection point of the water tank
Tap water collected from the last connection point of the water tank
Water collected from the Thirumalai Rajan river at the entry point into the
Village
Water collected from the Thirumalai Rajan river as it leaves the village.
Water collected from the pond
Water collected from the unprotected well.

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R. Krishnaveni/Life Science Archives (LSA), Volume 1, Issue 2, Page 72 to 77, 2015

81

Table 2: Number of viable bacterial count, total coliform and faecal coliform from the collected
water samples by standard plate count (SPC) and most probable number
Number of
bacteria
S.
No

Samples

Total coliforms
MPN / 100ml

106 cfu/ml

Faecal
coliforms

Faecal streptococci
MPN / 100ml

MPN / 100ml

First
cycle

Second
cycle

First
cycle

Second
cycle

First
cycle

Second
cycle

First
cycle

Second
cycle

B1

10

39

150

240

240

B2

23

30

240

150

1100

1100

B3

30

45

240

1100

460

1100

T1

68

78

150

240

460

460

T2

191

210

1100

1100

1100

1100

T3

53

60

240

240

120

93

R1

18

25

1100

1100

1100

1100

21

R2

19

60

1100

1100

1100

1100

21

21

18

60

1100

1100

1100

1100

43

93

10

21

25

1100

1100

1100

1100

15

15

Table 3: Prevalence of bacteria from various water samples in Sundaraperumal koil, Kumbakonam
S.No
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.

Water samples
Bore well water
Tap water
River water
Pond water
Well water

Organism isolated
Bacillus, Streptococcus faecalis, Pseudomonas
Escherichia coli, Salmonella, Bacillus, Streptococcus faecalis, Shigella
Escherichia coli, Bacillus, Salmonella, Streptococcus faecalis, Shigella
Streptococcus faecalis
Streptococcus faecalis

Faecal coliforms are also an indicator

organism for analyzing the water quality .It is also
enumerated using the MPN technique similar to
that of coliform count except the change in the
media used at various steps in the procedure. The
collected water samples namely R1, R2, T1, andW
showed a high faecal coliform count of about
1100/100ml of the collected water sample in both
the cycles followed by the B3 & T1. T3 shows the
least faecal coliform count of about 120 & 93/100
ml. The water samples collected from the Bore

wells namely B1 recorded 240/100 ml in both the

cycles (Table - 2).
The presence of faecal Streptococci is an
indication of faecal contamination, if ingested
along with the drinking water poses a threat to the
health of the people. Faecal Streptococcal count is
also done on the same way as Total coliform count
as per the MPN technique. The water sample P
shows a high faecal Streptococcal count of about
43/100 ml in the first cycle and also a rise to
93/100 ml in the second cycle, followed by the
river water and well water samples with a count of

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R. Krishnaveni/Life Science Archives (LSA), Volume 1, Issue 2, Page 72 to 77, 2015

21 & 15 in both the cycles respectively. The water
sample designated as B1, B2, B3, T1 shows about
3/100 ml of the samples where as there is a
complete absence of faecal Streptococci in the
water samples collected from the tap water
samples namely the T2 & T3 (Table -2).
Various organisms were isolated from the
water samples and they are tabulated in the Table 3. Most of the water samples had Bacillus in
common which are isolated from standard plate
count. The gram-negative isolates are given much
importance and E. coli, Salmonella, Shigella are
almost present in all the water samples except the
bore well water and Pseudomonas was identified
in the sample B2 (Table -3).
Based on the results of the bacteriological
analysis of drinking water in the village of
Sundaraperumal koil, it is found that most of the
drinking water sources are prone to bacterial
contamination by the coliforms and pathogenic
microorganisms.
4. Conclusion
Drinking water is indispensable for human
health. Water is the essential constituent of any
form of life. It plays a significant role for the
sound health of every person. The people in the
rural areas without much knowledge regarding the
microbial quality of water, uses these sources of
water as safe, protective one. Indeed centrality of
water to rural communities is one of the greatest
challenges of sustainable development because it
impinges on achieving the objectives of improving
the health and living condition of the people in
these areas.
The present study undertaken in the village
of Sundaraperumal koil reveals that most of the
drinking water sources are highly contaminated.
The tap waters supplied by the local governing
body was found to be much contaminated with
coliforms and faecal coliforms when compared to
the other water sources followed by the pond
water, well water and river water Bacteriological
contamination of these water supplies may be
either due to the failure of the disinfection system
or to the infiltration of contaminated water
through cross connection, leakage points. In piped

82

supplies discontinuity increase the likelihood of

contamination. The reasons for the degree of
contamination in open water sources may be due
to the activities of human. The current study
indicates the degree of contamination in various
water sources and this can be overcome by proper
disinfections of the tap water supply by the village
panchayat. Moreover, the people should be made
aware of the consequences they meet by using the
water as such for drinking. Other than this the
people should be addressed about the art of
leading a hygienic way of life by avoiding open
defaecation, by proper hand washing, and to use
boiled and cooled water for drinking purposes etc.
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