Year: 2014 | Month: March | Volume 7 | Issue 1
Microbiological Quality of Water Stored in Copper, Earthenware and Stainless Steel Vessels
Abstract: <div>A study was conducted to compare the effect of storage of water in copper, earthenware and stainless steel vessels on coliform count and aerobic plate count. Water samples contaminated with animal excreta was collected from farms and aerobic plate count and coliform count was estimated. The samples were then stored in copper, earthenware and stainless steel vessels for ten days at room temperature and the counts were taken on third, sixth and tenth days. Initial mean aerobic plate count of sample was 9.18±0.38 log10 cfu/ml, which came down to 4.99±0.12 log10 cfu/ml, 5.87±0.47 log10 cfu/ml and 5.21±0.42 log10 cfu/ml respectively, in copper, earthenware and stainless steel vessels on third day of storage. By tenth day of storage of water, copper vessel could eliminate 83 per cent of aerobic bacteria, earthenware vessel could eliminate 77 per cent of aerobic bacteria and stainless steel vessel could eliminate only 70 per cent of aerobic bacteria. Coliforms were completely eliminated from copper vessel by third day of storage. Whereas, earthenware vessel retained 66 percent of initial coliforms on third day of storage, and it took seven to ten days for complete removal of coliforms from earthenware vessel. Stainless steel vessel retained 23.5 per cent of initial coliforms on</div><div>tenth day of storage. It could be concluded that use of copper vessels for storing drinking water in households is an effective water purification method.</div>
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