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African Journal of Microbiology Research Efficiency of slow sand filtration in removing bacteria and turbidity from drinking water in rural communities of central Ethiopia

Journal article published in 2014 by Ephrem Guchi, Seyoum Leta, Eline Boelee
This paper is available in a repository.
This paper is available in a repository.

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Preprint: policy unknown
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Postprint: policy unknown
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Abstract

Approximately over one billion people world-wide lacks access to adequate amounts of safe water and rely on unsafe drinking water sources from lakes, rivers and open well. This study is aimed at evaluating the efficiency of slow sand filtration (SSF) in clay pots in removing total and thermotolerant/faecal coliforms (TC and TTC/FC) and turbidity (TR) and assessing the contamination level at the point-of-use at home in the central highlands of Ethiopia. Eighty households were selected for this study where 40 households were intervention groups who used SSF in clay pots that comprised of spring users (20) and river users (20). Assessment of drinking water quality from home storage containers was also conducted for the other 40 non-intervention groups from village 1 using spring water (20) and from village 2 using river water (20). Triplicate water samples in two-week interval were collected to determine the presence of TC and TTC/FC and turbidity in the water samples. Membrane filtration and epifluorescence microscope methods were used for TC and TTC/FC enumeration, and turbidity was measured using Turbidimeter. Mean analyses of water samples for TC, TTC/FC and turbidity from influent and effluent of SSF in clay pots for spring users showed that average TC from influent was 888.9 cfu/100 ml whereas from effluent it was 5.5 cfu/100 ml. Moreover, average TTC/FC from influent was 289.4 cfu/100 ml whereas from effluent it was 2.5 cfu/100 ml. Similarly, average turbidity from influent was 9.0 NTU and from effluent it was 0.9 NTU. The study showed that average removal efficiency of SSF in clay pots from spring users were 97.4 and 96.9% for TC and TTC/FC, respectively, while the removal efficiency for turbidity was 92.9%. Similarly, mean analyses of water samples for TC, TTC/FC and turbidity from influent and effluent of SSF in clay pots for river users showed that average TC from influent was 824.0 cfu/100 ml whereas from effluent it was 4.8 cfu/100 ml. In addition, average TTC/FC from influent was 267 cfu/100 ml, and from effluent it was 2.0 cfu/100 ml. Moreover, average turbidity from influent was 8.4 NTU and from effluent it was 0.9 NTU. Coliform removal efficiencies of SSF in clay pots from river users were 97.9 and 96.6% for TC and TTC/FC respectively, whereas turbidity reduction of 93.1% was obtained. Mean TC and TTC/FC counts per 100 ml water samples of village 1 (spring users) and village 2(river users) from home storage containers were also compared using t-test and there was a significant difference (P<0.05) in village 1 (spring users) at the 5% level of significance. Water analyses from the effluent of slow sand filtration in clay pot showed that it is safe for drinking purpose from bacteriological point of view.