Challenging the WHO prescribed sanitary inspections for contamination of tubewells with handpump

Abstract

WHO prescribed sanitary inspections constitute useful monitoring tools, besides being effective and economic in identifying drinking sources of water at risk in terms of contamination. In the present case, the contamination risks in potable waters from Tubewells fitted with handpump were evaluated across 9 districts in India. Field inspections were conducted in WHO prescribed format on Three Hundred Twenty Four sources of potable water used by the community for withdrawing drinking water to evaluate occurrence of contamination risk. The theoretical risk thus assessed was then compared with actual test results of biological testing in the laboratory for assessment of Coliform bacteria using a standard MPN test. The results of the study indicate that WHO format based sanitary survey results are more stringent than reality, and hence overestimate the risk. The results also indicate that the risk categories are mostly distributed with a majority of risk focused in the middle in the High and Medium risk categories.