Most significant sanitary microbiological parameters of drinking water quality assessment

Summary

Sanitary control of water is a complex and multilevel process. It is associated with every stage of water use, starting from the water supply source selection, monitoring, and water treatment to disinfection and wastewater disposal to collection facilities. Sanitary and microbiological water assessment implies determining sanitary profile, i. e. criteria that reflect compliance or noncompliance of the object under investigation with the regulatory documents requirements. The determined parameters and the frequency of their measurement depend on the assignment of the project under investigation and are strictly regulated by the respective regulatory framework. Sanitary parameters are divided into index parameters
that reflect the level of fecal pollution and indicator parameters that reflect the quality of water treatment. Index parameters include: Escherichia сoli, thermotolerant coliforms and coliphages. Indicator parameters are: total microbial count, total coliforms, sulfite-reducing clostridia spores etc. Determination of some pathogenic and opportunistic pathogenic bacteria like salmonella, pathogenic staphylococcus, blue pus bacillus etc. is an important aspect of water bodies monitoring. EC countries moved from determining groups of sanitary indicator microorganisms (thermotolerant coliforms, fecal staphylococcus, sulfite-reducing clostridia spores) to determining directly sanitary indicator microorganisms (Escherichia coli, Enterococcus faecalis, Clostridium perfringens), which makes water quality assessment more standardized and reliable. Advanced methods and approaches to the assessment of the sanitary state of the water bodies are continuously emerging and introduced in the international practice of sanitary surveys.

Key words

potable water , water quality , total coliform bacteria , sanitary index , index parameter , indicator parameter , Escherichia coli , thermotolerant coliforms , coliphages , total microbial count , salmonella , P. aeruginosa , S. aureus , sanitary microbiological assessment , sanitary indicator microorganism , chromogenic substratum