Abstract:
Drinking water is the major source of bacteria pathogens in developing countries. The main objective of this study was bacteriological and physicochemical assessment of drinking water quality in the case of Ginch town.The study was designed to include 160 water samples from households’ taps and sources. Based on the physicochemical and bacteriological parameters, there were no a strong relationship between pH value and E. coli in a rainy season. There were also no a significant correlation in between DO other variables in both seasons. The EC and dry season water sources at (r= .658, P< 0.01) were positively correlated. Bacteriologically, there were a strong significant correlation in between E. coli and Enterococci by r = .500 at p<0.05 in dry season. In case of fecal indicator bacteria assessment, there were High load of e coli in the source water samples (5cfu/100ml) than the other seasons of the bacteria. Hence, large amount of temperature, PH, DO and EC were observed in dry season than wet season of HHT water. The sulphate content of dry and wet season were < 0 mg/ml. Of the samples detected in HHT dry water, 30(46.87%) of them were positive for Ecoli; of the samples detected in HHT wet season from in Ginchi town, 37(57.8%) of them were positive for Ecoli. But, according to WHO 1997 water grade quality, the present bacterial concentration of the water quality to be classified as category C and this amount of the bacterial load has intermediate risk effect on the health. All of the samples detected in dry season from sources in Ginchi town, 4(25%) of them were positive for Ecoli; of the samples detected in household wet season from sources in Ginchi town, 5(31.3%) of them were positive for Ecoli. Therefore, according to (WHO, 1997,) water grade quality, the recent high bacterial concentration of the water quality recommends it to be classified as category B and this amount of the bacterial load has low risk effect on human health. According to WHO,2017 guide line the grading schemes the ‘C’ water grade quality is not recommended perfectly to consume according to the WHO (2017) 0cfu/100ml policy,. According to Ethiopian standard there is no water quality class; however, it is not recommended 0/100ml for E.coli; however, in our sample, the tap water 30(46.87%) is positive for dry season and 37(57.8%) is positive for wet season samples obtained from the HHT. In general, there is aneed to look after the current status of Ginchi town water quality in asustainable way.
