International Journal of Scientific Reports | April 2021 | Vol 7 | Issue 4 Page 215 International Journal of Scientific Reports Khan SA et al. Int J Sci Rep. 2021 Apr;7(4):215-220 http://www.sci-rep.com pISSN 2454-2156 | eISSN 2454-2164 Original Research Article A proportional study on the existence of coliform and fecal coliform in the post-treatment (filtered and boiled) water samples Shihab Ahmed Khan 1 , Mahbuba Akter Lubna 2 , M. Sajedur Rahman Razeeb 3 , Mrityunjoy Acharjee 1,4 * INTRODUCTION Water-borne diseases are frequent among the communities due to the mismanagement in water distribution process, cross-contamination, man-made pollution, personal unsanitary condition and lack of proper education. 1-3 Though, consumption of safe drinking water is the main aspect to ensure public and environmental health safety. 1,2 Drinking water can be contaminated with pathogenic bacteria implicated with water-borne diseases. Among the pathogenic bacteria, enteric pathogens are the striking ones for the water microbiologist. 1 Therefore, sources of fecal pollution in waters devoted to human activity must be strictly controlled. Entero-pathogens, such as Escherischia coli O157:H7, are generally present at a very low concentration in environmental waters within a diversified microflora. Complex methods are required to detect them, however, these are extremely time- consuming. 1,4 In most of the cases, presence of fecal 1 Department of Microbiology, Stamford University Bangladesh, Siddeswari Road, Dhaka, Bangladesh 2 Department of Chemistry and Molecular Biology, University of Gothenburg, Gothenburg, Sweden 3 Department of Microbiology, Stamford University Bangladesh, 51, Siddeswari Road, Dhaka 1217, Bangladesh 4 Department of Bioscience, Graduate School of Science and Technology, Shizuoka University, Oya, Suruga-ku, Shizuoka, Japan Received: 08 November 2020 Revised: 18 February 2021 Accepted: 11 March 2021 *Correspondence: Mrityunjoy Acharjee, E-mail: mrityunjoy_111@yahoo.com Copyright: © the author(s), publisher and licensee Medip Academy. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License, which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. ABSTRACT Background: The elimination of pathogenic microorganisms from drinking water is the first and foremost requirement in terms of maintaining the quality of water as well as reducing the water- borne diseases. The presence of coliform in water acts as an indicator of the presence of others pathogens. Methods: Present study attempted to focus on the existence of coliform and fecal coliform in drinking water along with their drug resistant pattern through conventional culture methods and Kirby-Bauer method (disk diffusion). Results: A total of 30 samples (15 were boiled and 15 were filter) were collected and processed for microbiological action. Significant numbers of samples (both filter and boiled water) were found to be contaminated with coliform bacteria especially E. coli and Klebsiella spp. within the range of 10 2 to 10 4 cfu/ml. In addition, few samples exhibited fecal contamination. A total of 15 available drugs were used against the identified E. coli and Klebsiella spp. Most of the identified bacteria were found to be sensitive against commonly used antibiotics. Very few strains of E. coli and Klebsiella spp. in both filter and boiled water were found to be resistant to more than one antibiotic. Only Klebsiella spp. from boiled water showed 100% sensitivity against all the drugs. Conclusions: The presence of drug resistant coliform and fecal coliform in drinking water is a clear indication of poor water quality which might be a threat for consumer’s health, especially for the children. Keywords: Drinking water, Coliform, Fecal coliform, Drug resistance DOI: https://dx.doi.org/10.18203/issn.2454-2156.IntJSciRep20211037