Abstract:
More than 20 brands of bottled drinking water are supplied in
Jaffna peninsula. People rely on the quality of the bottled drinking water,
expecting them to be free of microbial contamination which will not cause
any health hazards. The greatest risk from microbes in bottled drinking
water is contamination with human and animal excreta, although other
sources and routes of exposure may also be significant. In this study,
attempts were made to evaluate the quality of bottled drinking water by
analyzing its microbial contamination. Bottled drinking water of 22 brands
were selected which includes one brand produced in Jaffna and others were
brought from out of Jaffna. When the different bottled drinking water
brands were analyzed for microorganisms, aerobic bacterial count varied
from 0 to 800 colony forming units per mL (cfu/mL). Approximately 63.6%
of the bottled drinking water brands contained high amount of aerobic
bacterial count than the minimum acceptable level (100 cfu/mL)
recommended by the Sri Lanka Standards institution while none of them had
anaerobic bacterial contamination. Among the 22 brands, 13.6% of bottled
drinking water brands showed fungal contamination and 9.1% were
contaminated with coliform bacteria. Out of the 22 brands of bottled
drinking water, two (9.1%) contained faecal contamination. This was
confirmed by analyzing for Escherichia coli and Klebsiella. The Brand C (Strain
C1) had the Escherichia coli and brand D (Strains D1 and D2) had the Klebsiella.
Therefore all the bottled drinking water brands supplied in Jaffna peninsula
are not free from microbes. The RDHS (Regional Director of Health Service)
should consider the monitoring of the drinking water brands supplied in
Jaffna.
