“ANALYSIS OF THE PHYSICO-CHEMICAL AND BACTERIOLOGICAL PARAMETERS OF BOTTLED WATER AVAILABLE IN BHANDARDARA VALLEY”

CIVIL ENGINEERING & SCIENCE & HUMANITIES

Water is vital for life. However, it also serves as the commonest route of transmission of a number of infectious diseases. The WHO has estimated that up to 80% of all sickness and disease in the world is caused by inadequate sanitation and polluted water. In the context of growing health consciousness and chronic water shortages, most of the urban residents have switched to bottled water as a safe alternative. The public perception is that bottled water is regularly of high quality. This belief is encouraged by publicly reported problem of municipal tap water as well as the public perception of purity driven by advertisements. However, many studies have shown that these beliefs need not always be true. Samples of Eight brands of jar water of 20 ml capacity were analyzed twice for various physicochemical as well as bacteriological parameters during January, February and March. All the physicochemical parameters like pH, DO, hardness, alkalinity, chloride was within WHO acceptable limits. Ammonia was detected in some samples but is within the limits set by WHO. Iron and Nitrates were found in small quantities but within the limits set by WHO. From the bacteriological point of view, 60% of the total samples were heavily contaminated with coliforms during the test in January/February. During the test in February/March, 87% of the total sample was found to be contaminated with total coliforms whereas 64% were contaminated with fecal coliforms. From the analysis of jar water marketed in Ahmednagar District, it was concluded that the jar water samples are heavily contaminated with coliform bacteria and unsatisfactory for drinking purpose.

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