What is it about?
Water is critical for life, but many people do not have access to clean and safe drinking water and die because of waterborne diseases. The analysis of drinking water for the presence of indicator microorganisms is a key to determine the microbiological quality and public health safety. However, the drinking water-related illness outbreaks are still occurring worldwide. Moreover, different indicator microorganisms are being used in different countries as a tool for the microbiological examination of drinking water. Therefore, it becomes very important to understand the potentials and limitations of indicator microorganisms before implementing the guidelines and regulations designed by various regulatory agencies. This review provides updated information on traditional and alternative indicator microorganisms with merits and demerits in view of their role in managing the waterborne health risks as well as conventional and molecular methods proposed for monitoring of indicator and pathogenic microorganisms in the water environment. Further, the World Health Organization water safety plan is also emphasized in order to develop the better approaches designed to meet the requirements of safe drinking water supply for all mankind, which is one of the major challenges of the 21st century.
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Why is it important?
Traditionally, the indicators have played a crucial role in implementing the guidelines and national standards. However, these are being seen as an adjunct to management controls such as sanitary surveys and there is a move away from a specified indicator level end product. In other words, indicators are being replaced by on-line analyzes (say for chlorine residual or particle sizes) at critical control points. A single indicator, or even a range of indicators, is unlikely to be appropriate for every occasion and, therefore, it is useful to tailor indicator choice to local circumstances when translating the international guidelines into national standards. In addition, with the change in management paradigm, more indicators of process efficiency are required rather than reliance on the ‘old-style’ fecal indicators.
Perspectives
As per my perspective, the development of alternative fecal indicators to replace or to combine with conventional ones requires the additional adequate investigation and epidemiological survey on their applications. The techniques available for direct detection of pathogens/ microbial indicators are required to be improved in order to make them standardized and of wider applications, but further research and evolution of new methods are still needed and thus, more studies are required in order to understand the behavior and ecology of waterborne pathogens so that their true potential as emerging waterborne pathogens may be evaluated.
Dr Ram Naresh Bharagava
Babasaheb Bhimrao Ambedkar University (A Central University), Lucknow - 226 025
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Microbial indicators, pathogens and methods for their monitoring in water environment, Journal of Water and Health, June 2015, IWA Publishing,
DOI: 10.2166/wh.2014.275.
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