Molecular approach and bacterial quality of drinking water of urban and rural communities in Egypt

Water is necessary to life so when supplied as drinking water to consumers, a satisfactory quality must be maintained. In Egypt, infectious intestinal diseases are the major cause of hospitalization in almost all regions. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the microbiological quality of treated and untreated water samples from urban and rural communities. Thirty-five samples of treated (chlorinated) water from taps, 25 samples of bottled water and 15 samples of hand pump (untreated) water collected from different cities alongside the River Nile during the winter of 2007 were bacteriologically tested for safety as drinking water. This study indicated good quality of tap water and bottled water. The untreated water samples (hand pumps) were, however, slightly contaminated by faecal coliforms, faecal enterococci, Clostridium perfringens, Salmonella and Shigella. Consequently, the consumers in the villages receiving water through hand pumps are often exposed to the risk of water-borne diseases due to inadequate treatment of the raw water. Therefore, there are guidelines necessary to protect groundwater quality. Moreover, PCR-amplified by some functional gene fragments such as dctA, dcuB, frdA, dcuS and dcuR genes of the E. coli was adapted for use as a non-cultivation-based molecular approach for detection of E. coli populations from water samples without the need for pure and identified cultures.