Occurrence of bacterial diversity in surface and drinking waters in Damietta, Egypt

Bacterial pathogens in Egyptian water have been reported. While previous studies focused on raw water, correlation between raw and drinking waters quality including water treatment output and distribution networks bacterial pathogens were not explored. Therefore this study monitored the water quality parameters at drinking water treatment plant (DWTP), Damietta County, Egypt involving input, output, tap and distribution networks. Monthly changes in physiochemical parameters were analyzed for one year from (Jan. 2017 – Dec. 2017). All parameters were within the permissible limits of the Egyptian standards. Hence, the water is non-polluted chemically and can be used for drinking. Biochemical methods were conducted to identify bacterial pathogens. The distribution of the studied bacteria based on their site declared that the River Nile was subjected to different pollution sources as twenty four bacterial isolates obtained from the input were identified using biochemical reaction tests; however DWTP had the ability to remove it. On another hand, bacterial pathogens reoccurrence in distribution networks give a risk to health.