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How The Clean Water Is A Very Important Aspect Of Health

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This report represents my individual effort. I did not receive or offer aid to anyone when performing this assignment, nor did I plagiarize any material.

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Introduction Having clean water is a very crucial aspect of health. Many people don’t have access to clean water, this can be life threatening. There are lethal bacterial infections that are present in water. There are many different diseases that can acquire by drinking contaminated water like: cholera, typhoid fever, and dysentery. The biggest concern and issue is the ingestion of water that is contaminated with fecal matter (1). It has been discovered that the main source of bacteria is this fecal contamination. Fecal matter can enter water sources by runoff from farms or any area that contains many animals. This contamination can also come from insects, rats, or other small animals entering wells or water sources (2). Testing the quality of water, it is often common to test if the water contains coliforms. It is easier to test for coliforms, instead of testing for bacteria that can cause each waterborne disease. Coliforms are gram negative, facultative anaerobic bacteria that do not form endospores. They are also rod shaped and will ferment lactose (slides). When they ferment lactose, this will produce acid and gas. This acid and gas production will allow the total coliform count to be determined.

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