Microorganisms that indicate the quality of drinking water in Cuba

Abstract

Waterborne pathogens are of global concern and demand urgent control. Bacteria, viruses and parasites cause diseases with varying degrees of severity. The determination of microorganisms in water and its concentration provide control tools essentials for decision making. Routine control of all potential health - hazardous microbes in water are difficult to attain, because of the expensive overhead and labor costs they would demand. For an economical, reliable and simple assessment, routine water quality monitoring is conducted through detection of fecal contaminant indicator species, using different technical approaches, each having its own strengths, weakness and limitations. This review focuses in the analysis of current international guidelines compared with national standards regarding the indicator microbes monitored for the assessment of microbial drinking water quality, as key elements. From the analysis the authors conclude that it would be recommendable to implement complementary monitoring protocols to address other indicators of microbial contamination in drinking water like viruses and parasites which are not covered by current protocols. Also the authors find necessary to establish indicator microbes and reference values for validation, operational and verification tests. Complying with such recommendations would ensure providing relevant information and would place Cuban standards closer to the level of recognized international authorities.