Assessment of Physicochemical and Bacteriological Quality of Drinking Water from Source to Household in North East Ethiopia

Globally, water sources and distribution systems of towns have water quality problems. Water borne diseases are one of the top-ten diseases occurred in consecutive years in Woldia town. This study tried to assessing drinking water quality from source to households in woldia town, Northeast Ethiopia. Cross sectional study was conducted and 44 water samples were collected from deep wells, reservoirs and water taps which were determined based on the population number of the town and the total number of water taps present in each kebele. Simple random samplings were used to select the sampling points. Corresponding to the sampled water taps, 15 samples of household water containers were determined. The water samples were analyzed for physicochemical and bacteriological in Woldia town water supply and sewerage service, water quality laboratory. The result of the laboratory was entered in to SPSS version 20 for correlation and one way ANOVA analysis. Mean values of pH, turbidity, EC, TDS, Nitrate and Fluoride of deep wells, reservoirs, water taps and household water containers of the study area were within the range of WHO limit. But the mean values of temperature, TC, TTC and RCL of deep wells, reservoirs, water taps and household water containers were incompatible with WHO limit. From the total of 44 samples, 16(36.36%) had positive test for Total Coliforms and 3(6.81%) of them had positive test for TTC. Correlation has been seen between the TTC and the physicochemical parameters. Turbidity was moderate and positively correlated with TTC (r=+0.48, P<0.001) whereas EC and TDS were negatively correlated in weak relationship (r=-0.34, P<0.025). For physicochemical parameters PH, Temperature, NO3- (mg/l) and RCL (mg/l) shown significant variation among the concentration of different water sampled sites (P<0.001).