Problems related to the treatment of drinking water in tropical climates

A study on the bacteriological quality of drinking water in a camp of an oil-company in Thiang Rial (South Sudan) showed that the filtered drinking water in the water storage containers contained distinctly higher colony counts (up to 10(6) colonies/ml) than the untreated water flowing approximately 20 meters from the bank of the White Nile (up to 10(4) colonies/ml), from where the water was pumped to the camp. The qualitative bacteriological analysis also confirmed that the untreated water from the Nile was of a better quality than the treated water in the camp. This decrease in quality of the water was due to secondary contamination between the filtration system and the consumer.