Microbial Contamination of Community Pond Water in Dibrugarh District of Assam

Our drinking water today, far from being pure, contains bacteria, viruses, inorganic minerals and a chemical cocktail that is unsuitable for human consumption. A study was undertaken with the objectives of evaluating the viable coliforms along with other water born bacteria in pond water environment. Water samples were collected from three community ponds of Dibrugarh district which are used mostly for bathing, watering livestock as well as drinking under water crises condition. Bacteria from collected pond samples were isolated by dilution plate technique. Coliform group in water was evaluated with the reference to EPA manual Microbiology Methods. The results showed that of the three ponds, pond 1 has highest number of bacterial counts (30x10 4 ) followed by pond 3 (24 x10 4 ) whereas pond 2 showed minimum colony count (12 x 10 3 ) per ml of water. The coliform bacteria count in the above pond water sample is far above the safety limit of WHO. Besides gram negative rod shaped coliform group, two groups of gram positive round shaped (with colony colour violet and orange) and gram positive rod shaped bacteria group were also found dominant.