Assessment of the quality of water from some public coolers in alexandria, egypt.

Drinking water from bottle-less coolers may pose some public health risks to consumers due to either chemical or microbiological contamination. This study was carried out aiming at assessing the quality of water dispensed from some public coolers in order to determine its compliance with the drinking water standards (Egyptian, EPA) and with the WHO guidelines. Twenty water coolers were selected randomly from different districts. Water samples were collected thrice from these coolers and once from the mains supplying the coolers. Results of analysis of these samples revealed that 85% of water coolers were containing <0.5 mg/l free residual chlorine, 65% were containing lead higher than 0.01mg/l, and 55% were containing magnesium hardness higher than 150 mg/l. As for the biological contamination, 15% of the coolers were contaminated with Cryptosporidium parvum, 15% were containing total coliform group of bacteria, 5 % gave positive thermotolerent coliform test and 5% gave positive Streptococcus fecalis test. The study concluded that such contamination might be from failure to thoroughly clean the coolers on a regular basis. Consequently, the study recommends proper installation of the cooler, a maintenance agreement with the cooler supplier, testing cooler water at regular intervals by the Ministry of Health representatives, and -if possible- replacing these types of coolers with those with a water purification system.