คุณภาพด้านจุลชีววิทยาของน้ำดื่มโรงเรียนในเขตเมือง และเขตชนบทจังหวัดเชียงใหม่

Abstract

The quality of drinking water in schools located in urban and rural area may be different. This study was a cross sectional descriptive study. The objectives were to compare the microbiological quality of tab water before treating process in urban and rural schools, to study quality management of drinking water in urban and rural schools, and to compare the microbiological quality of drinking water after treating process in urban and rural schools. Water samples were collected form 11 urban schools and 7 rural schools in Chiang Mai province during November 2013 - February 2014. Interview from were used to collect data about general school characteristics, water storage and usage, and quality management of water. Data were an alyzed using descriptive statistics. Results of the study found that the microbiological quality of tab water was less than standard criteria 2out of 11 samples for urban schools and 3 out of 7 samples for rural schools. These due to the use of underground water contaminated with microbiological and the amount of free residual chlorine less than standard level. Regarding to the quality of drinking water, it was found that both types of school treated water by filtration. However, the assessment of microbiology quality of drinking water was less than standard criteria 4 out of 19 samples for urban schools and 3 out of 15 samples for rural schools. The contamination of coli form bacteria was found in the samples. These findings were due to the use of ground water as source of drinking water and the lack of adequate management of the water filters and the use of untreated microbiological filter system.

The results of this study indicate that there are problems of quality of drinking water in schools located both in urban and rural areas. These need to be solved in order to prevent water borne diseases. The procedures are including surveillance of water supply for drinking water, management of water filtration with microbiological filter system.