Comparison of Drinking Water Quality Following Boiling , Household Filtration and Water-Refill in Urban-Slum Area Sri

Safe drinking water availability remains crucial problem in urban-slum areas. Boiling and household filtration are the most frequent water-treatment methods; water-refill is a growing industry providing affordable drinking water for low-middle income households in developing countries. This study compared the efficacy and annual infection risk after boiling, filtration, and water-refill methods to determine the best method for urban-slum dwellers. It was quasiexperimental pre-post design, data were collected by purposive sampling from urban-slum area in Bandung municipality between January-February 2017. Water samples were examined from 55 households using boiling and filtration method and 55 households using water-refill. Coliforms and E.coli contaminations were examined using membrane filter method. The removal efficacy of Coliforms, log removal reduction (LRR) and annual risk infection were calculated. The efficacy of filtration for removing Coliform/E.coli was 99.84% and 100%, boiling was 98% and 96%, respectively. Only 54.5% of water-refill samples were Coliformnegative. Safe LRR for Coliforms/E. coli using filtration was 76.63% and 100% whereas using boiling was 40% and 96.36%, respectively. Only household filtration demonstrated no annual risk infection. Household filtration is the most effective method to eliminate microorganisms from raw water. Health education and proper water-treatment method promotion are warranted to prevent waterborne disease in urban-slum areas. Experimental article (J Int Dent Med Res 2019; 12(2): 791-796)