1.

0 Introduction
1.1 BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY

Water is precious for life. Since the dawn of human civilization, water supply is an
integral part of society for various purposes e.g, drinking, agriculture, industry,
household, etc. Much of the health problems in the developing countries are largely due
to the unavailability of safe drinking water . According to an estimate, 80% of all
infections and over one-third of demises in the developing countries are caused by the
intake of polluted drinking water. As per the report of the World Health Organization
(WHO) about 600 million cases of diarrhea and dysentery, and 46000 infant deaths
were stated per year because of polluted water and insufficiency of sanitation. Surface
water is potentially dangerous as a carrier of pathogenic microorganisms wherever it
comes in contact with human waste or sewage from surrounding locality. So, the
microbially contaminated water becomes extremely dangerous for drinking, swimming,
bathing, etc. Apart from that, sewage in water primarily disturbs the oxygen balance
which is alarming to aquatic flora and fauna . Water quality monitoring has been carried
out to evaluate the potability of a water resource for a particular usage. The suitability of
water is assessed in relation to acceptable concentrations of particular water quality
variables which are defined by guidelines, standards, or maximum permissible
concentration. The existence of fecal coliform bacteria in the water body specifies that
the water has been polluted with the fecal substance of warm-blooded animals.
Therefore, the enumeration of fecal bacteria is important for basic as well as applied
research in aquatic microbial ecology and the development of parameter-
based technologies for drinking water quality assessment. The presence of
fecal streptococci, Clostridium perfringens, and Klebsiella also indicates the fecal
pollution of water. Apart from that, Salmonella typhimurium, Salmonella
typhi, Salmonella enteritidis, Shigella spp., and Proteus spp. are predominant bacterial
flora in sewage samples. The quality of water also depends on various physicochemical
parameters which include conductivity, pH, turbidity, chemical oxygen
demand (COD), total suspended solids (TSS), biological oxygen demand (BOD), total
dissolved solids (TDS), alkalinity, salinity, and concentrations of heavy metals . In this
context, the assessment of the water quality of different water bodies has been reported
simultaneously in the literature. Full elaboration goes beyond the reach of this inquiry
as the present review is unique to the bacteriological analysis of water. Thus, this
present article attempts to focus on microbial pollution of water and different health
hazards that have occurred due to the contamination of water by micro organisms.