Drivers of water quality variability in northern coastal Ecuador.

ABSTRACT: Microbiological safety of water is commonly measured using indicator organisms, but the spatiotemporal variability of these indicators can make interpretation of data difficult. Here, we systematically explore the variability in Escherichia coil concentrations in surface source and household drinking water in a rural Ecuadorian village over one year. We observed more variability in water quality on an hourly basis (up to 2.4 log difference) than on a daily (2.2 log difference) or weekly basis (up to 1.8 log difference). E. coli counts were higher in the wet season than in the dry season for source (0.42 log difference, p < 0.0001) and household (0.11 log difference, p = 0.077) samples. In the wet season, a 1 cm increase in weekly rainfall was associated with a 3% decrease (p = 0.006) in E.

SUBMITTER: Levy K 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3419269 | biostudies-literature | 2009 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature