Water quality and sanitation of drinking water dispensers of secondary school in Mueang District, Nakhon Ratchasima Province

Abstract

The purposes of this survey research were 1) to analyze quality of drinking water and water before transferring into water dispensers, comparing with drinking water quality standard of Department of Health and 2) to survey sanitation of drinking water dispensers from 58 dispensers and 12 samples of water before being drained into dispenser, of secondary school in Mueang District, Nakhon Ratchasima Province.  Water quality analysis including physical factors (turbidity and pH), chemical factors (hardness, iron, lead and cadmium) and biological factor (coliform bacteria) was performed.  Sanitation of water dispenser was evaluated using survey checklist.  All collected data was analyzed using descriptive statistics consisting of mean, standard deviation, percentage, lowest and highest values.

The results showed that drinking water and water before being drained into dispenser met the standards of chemical quality in all parameters.  Physical quality factor, i.e. turbidity passed the citeria except pH which did not met the standard for 84.48% (in case of drinking water) and 91.67% (in case of the others).  In biological aspect, excessive coliform bacteria were detected in samples amount to 5.17% (in case of drinking water) and 8.33%, (in case of the others).  Finally, level of water dispenser sanitation was good for 93.1% of samples.

In sumary, water quality and sanitary level of most samples were up to standard or ranked in good level.  However, in the reason of that water quality has an impact on health, improvement of water quality from all sources to standard is important and very necessary for student.  Therefor, the secondary school administrator has to regularly inspect and control drinking water quality in the school to be constantly safe for consumption.