Ascertaining the Safety of Water Sources
Case Study
Luke Tudor
09 Dec 2009
Microbiology, Vectors and Control
DMS1515
Concerns have been raised about the safety of drinking water being provided for a large temporary community. The area is remote, rural, without proper sanitation and there are limited multipurpose water resources
How could you ascertain the safety of the water?
Potable water is fit for consumption by humans and other animals. Water may be naturally potable, as is the case with pristine springs, or it may need to be treated in order to be safe. There is a sufficiently high quality that allows consumption or use without risk of immediate or long term harm as recognized in www.water-technology.net/glossary/potable-water.html The most common and widespread health risk associated with drinking water is contamination; whether directly or indirectly, by human or animal excreta, principally faeces. If such contamination is newborn, and if those responsible for it include carriers of communicable enteric disease, some of the pathogenic microorganisms that trigger these diseases may be to hand in the water. Drinking the water, or food preparation by means of this resource, may cause the manifestation of new cases of infection. Faecal contamination of drinking water is one of copious faecal-oral mechanisms by which transmission from person to person or from animals to people can transpire. Other pathogens instigate infection when contaminated water is draw on for bathing or recreation. This entails water contact, rather than oral ingestion. For these reasons it is essential that the safety of the water sources must be ascertained. Aquatic insects and other invertebrates, in view of the fact that they populate within the vicinity of the water, are most likely the easiest and cheapest way of ascertaining an approximate concept of the water quality. They depend on clean, uncontaminated water to live in, and if organic effluence enters the
Luke Tudor
09 Dec 2009
Microbiology, Vectors and Control
DMS1515
Concerns have been raised about the safety of drinking water being provided for a large temporary community. The area is remote, rural, without proper sanitation and there are limited multipurpose water resources
How could you ascertain the safety of the water?
Potable water is fit for consumption by humans and other animals. Water may be naturally potable, as is the case with pristine springs, or it may need to be treated in order to be safe. There is a sufficiently high quality that allows consumption or use without risk of immediate or long term harm as recognized in www.water-technology.net/glossary/potable-water.html The most common and widespread health risk associated with drinking water is contamination; whether directly or indirectly, by human or animal excreta, principally faeces. If such contamination is newborn, and if those responsible for it include carriers of communicable enteric disease, some of the pathogenic microorganisms that trigger these diseases may be to hand in the water. Drinking the water, or food preparation by means of this resource, may cause the manifestation of new cases of infection. Faecal contamination of drinking water is one of copious faecal-oral mechanisms by which transmission from person to person or from animals to people can transpire. Other pathogens instigate infection when contaminated water is draw on for bathing or recreation. This entails water contact, rather than oral ingestion. For these reasons it is essential that the safety of the water sources must be ascertained. Aquatic insects and other invertebrates, in view of the fact that they populate within the vicinity of the water, are most likely the easiest and cheapest way of ascertaining an approximate concept of the water quality. They depend on clean, uncontaminated water to live in, and if organic effluence enters the