Abstract: Contamination in drinking water is man made and usually due to improper handling, storage and serving which leads to the serious water borne diseases. A total of 340 drinking water samples were analyzed for bacterial contamination, out of them, 69.1% were non-potable by MPN method, 73.2% by MFT indicating presence of E. coli and 18.2% showed presence of thermotolerant E. coli of human fecal origin. Study concluded that poor hygiene behaviors such as improper method of storage, handling and serving, deteriorates the quality of drinking water which can be improved by imparting water hygiene behavior education to hotels and restaurants owners.
INTRODUCTION
Contamination in drinking water is man made and usually due to improper handling, storage and serving which leads to the serious water borne diseases. Around 2.2 million people die of basic hygiene related diseases like diarrhoea every year (WHO, 1984). WHO (2001) reported that water hygiene behavior on storage, handling affects the quality of drinking water. Potability of drinking water in hotels and restaurants is associated with poor hygiene environment. Tambekar and Banginwar (2004) stated that water become contaminated by incorrect method of collection, storage, serving and handling practices in hotels and restaurants. The improving water-handling practices by promoting water hygiene behavior improved water quality (Pinfold, 1990).
Water may become contaminated at any point between collection, storage, serving or handling in hotels and restaurants. Many hotels authority store drinking water in cement or plastic tanks (on ground or overhead), steel drum, earthenware and water coolers etc., without proper hygienic precautions (Tambekar et al., 2006). Studies have shown that storage water container and handling procedure of water at home or hotel and restaurants causes quality deterioration to such an extent that the water posses potential risk of infection to consumers (Jagals et al., 1999). Mintz et al. (1995) studied the health benefit from to the consumer water supply by improving domestic water storage and handling practices. Feachem (1984) studied the interventions for the control of diarrhoea diseases among young children. Due to improper storage and handling of drinking water in hotels and restaurants people get contaminate water with pathogenic microorganisms (Kaltenthaler and Drasar, 1996). Thus it indicated that improper storage handling and serving practices usually contaminate the drinking water in hotels and restaurants thus attempt was made to find out the water hygiene behavior in hotels and restaurants and their effect on the bacteriological quality of drinking water.
MATERIALS AND METHODS
A total of 340 drinking water samples were collected from the different types of hotels and restaurants, which had categorized as high class hotels (03), reasonable good quality (49), medium quality (60), road side hotels (65), road side Dhaba (66), government office canteens (10), bhojanalay/khanawal (21), pavbhaji/bhelwala (35), sweet mart/garden restaurants (27) and cold drinks/lassiwala (04) etc. in Amravati city. The hotel and restaurants owner usually stored the drinking water in water cooler, cement tank, ground level cement tank without tap, overhead tank, earthenware with/without tap and drum.
The collected drinking water samples were examined for potability. All the water samples were examined by MPN test (9 tube-test; containing double and single strength MacConkey purple broth with Durham’s tube) for its potability and the coliform contamination in water was recorded within 24 h. At same time all samples were analyzed by Membrane Filtration Test (MFT) using M-EC (M 1095, Hi-media) test agar for testing E. coli in drinking water and the colony showing yellow color identified as E. coli. The MPN positive test broth was further processed for the presence of thermotolerant E. coli by sub-culturing in tryptone broth for indole test and brilliant green lactose bile broth (Eijkman’s test) and incubated at 45.5°C. All bacteriological media were obtained from Hi-Media Pvt. Ltd, Mumbai, India.
RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
The hotels and restaurants in Amravati city were categorized as high class hotels, reasonably good quality, medium quality, road side hotels, road side tapri/Dhaba, government office canteens, Bhojanalay/khanawal, pavbhaji/bhelwala, sweet mart/garden restaurants and cold drinks/lassiwala etc., on the basis of their hygienic conditions and type of food provided. A total of 340 drinking water samples were analyzed for bacterial contamination, out of them, 235 (69.1%) were non-potable by MPN method, 249 (73.2%) were contaminated by MFT indicating presence of E. coli and total 62 (18.2%) water samples were confirmed to be contaminated with thermotolerant coliforms, by Eijkman test indicating E. coli of human fecal origin. Out of these samples, 105 (coliform MPN index <10) were found to be potable by MPN but at same time 24 samples were shown positive for E. coli by MFT and all 105 samples were negative for TTC. The 24 samples which were shown containing E. coli by MFT may not be contain thermotolerant coliform. The MPN index >41 shown more or less same result of water sample either tested by MPN or MFT, indicating similar specificity of the both the test and shown containing E. coli of non specific origin. The less number of samples shown contaminations by Eijkman test shown only human fecal originated thermotolerant coliform indicating human fecal contamination in drinking water (Table 1).
The maximum bacterial contamination in drinking water was recorded in Pavbhaji/Bhelwala (88.6%), sweet mart/garden restaurants (81.5%), road side Dhaba (77.2%), Bhojanalay Khanawal (80.9%), government offices canteen (80.0%) as compared to medium quality (60.0%), road side hotels (60.0%), good quality hotels (55.1%) and top class hotels (33.3%). Indicating poor hygiene condition while storage, handling and serving of drinking water. Comparatively low bacterial contamination was recorded in high class and good quality restaurants indicating good hygienic condition. Maximum thermotolerant coliform contamination was recorded in sweet mart (44.4%), Govt. office canteen (30%), cold drink and Lassiwala (25%), medium quality hotels and restaurant (18.3%), roadside Dhaba (16.8%) and roadside hotels (13.8%) as compare to good quality hotels and restaurants, Bhojanalay/Khanawal and Pavbhaji/Bhelwala by Eijkman test (Table 2).
In the hotels, it is important to maintain the hygienic conditions for customer’s health. The finding suggested that drinking water might get contaminated during or after storage in container. Hazen (1988) studied on drinking water and diarrhoeal disease due to Escherichia coli and reported that, prevention of fecal contamination prevents water borne out breaks. Water may become contaminated at any point between collection, storage, serving or handling in hotels and restaurants. The potable water can be easily contaminated by incorrect method of storage, serving and handling practices (Tambekar and Banginwar, 2005).
The poor personal and domestic hygiene behaviors could be interpreted as an increased awareness towards maintaining cleanliness in a more hygienic condition. In case of withdrawing the water, the hotel owner and worker should not directly dip hands or without handle or short handle and serve water hygienically in the try which prevent the secondary contamination as the hand or finger of hotels owner or worker make the contact and water get contaminated (Tambekar et al., 2006).
| Table 1: | Potability of drinking water with various tests |
| Table 2: | Quality of drinking water in hotels and restaurants |
Thus, study concluded that poor hygiene behaviors such as improper method of storage, handling and serving, deteriorates the quality of drinking water which can be improved by imparting water hygiene behavior education to hotels and restaurants owners.