Define the Microbiological Study of Water?

Water is a common carrier of infectious diseases. Even clean and clear water which looks pure may be contaminated with pathogenic microorganisms and may pose a serious health hazard. Many important human pathogens can survive in water and infect humans. These belong to fungi, protozoa, algae, bacteria, actinomycetes and viruses and are responsible for wide range of intestinal infections, like, bacillary dysentery, giardiasis, typhoid etc. Table lists the common water borne infectious diseases.

Table: Some of the common water borne infectious diseases

Transmission of these waterborne diseases can be controlled by water purification and by monitoring the level of contamination. However, it is not possible to examine water routinely for each and every pathogen as it is time and labour consuming. Therefore, it is easy to detect the presence of indicator organism(s) as an index of possible water contamination by human pathogens. These indicator organisms are usually associated with the intestinal tract and their presence signals the faecal contamination of the water source.