MICROBIAL QUALITY OF DRINKING WATER AND HYGIENIC PRACTICES BY THE PEOPLE IN JAJA TOWN, EAST HARARGHE ZONE, OROMIA REGIONAL STATE, ETHIOPIA

Water is one of the most valuable natural resources, an essential element for life development and human activities (Romeu-Álvarez et al., 2012). The generation of recent information about both the water quality status and sanitation condition is highly important for +intervention. Hence, this study was conducted to assess the quality of drinking water supplied to the residents of Jaja town at the point of water resources well, spring and tap water from January 2021 to June 2022. A total of 34 water samples from three types of water sources were collected and bacteriological water quality parameters were analyzed using the membrane filtration method by the procedures of the American Public Health Association. Water analysis demonstrated that all water sources in the study areas were contaminated with total coliforms, fecal coliform. The average counts of TC were in the range of 5.66 to 110.34 CFU/100ml whereas the average counts of FC were found to of 1.5-51CFU/100ml. In all samples, the TC, FC and FS counts were above the recommended limit of WHO for drinking water quality whereas about 100% of the water samples in the three selected had high risk of microbiological water quality parameters. Fecal coliform - fecal streptococci ratios in all water sources in this study showed that 45.0% indicated enteric contamination from human wastes and 55.0% was from domestic animal wastes. Consequently, protection of water sources accompanied by sanitation and hygiene promotion programs can improve the water quality of rural water sources, where disinfection`is not feasible. Proper and basic sanitation, are of prime importance to deliver safe drinking water in the study site.