Faecal Coliform Contamination Level of Drinking Water and Its Associated Factors at Protected Water Source and House Hold Level in Rural of Dire Dawa Administration, Eastern Ethiopia,2021

Background፡ Today, close to a billion people most living in the developing world do not have access to safe and adequate water. Several studies in Ethiopia indicate that the majority of the drinking water sources had coliform count beyond the WHO standard. Therefore, Regular quality control mechanisms need to be in place Objective: - To determine the level of faecal coliform contamination of drinking water and its associated factors at protected sources and household level in rural settings of Dire Dawa city Administration, Eastern Ethiopia Method and Materials: - A Cross sectional study destion was done among 312 households. Random sampling technique was used to take water samples using standardized water sampling techniques. Face-to-face interview with structured questionnaires and observational checklist was used to collect socio-economic, behavioral data and sanitary risks. Bivariate and multivariate analysis were used to estimate the risk factors associated fecal coliform contamination of drinking water quality. Data were enter using Epi-Info version 7.2 and analysis was done using SPSS version 25. Result: - 312(100%) households were participated in the study. The prevalence of positive faecal coliform from household’s water sample taken is found to be 260(83.3%). In multivariate analysis, households who didn’t use water treatement had four times [(AOR = 4.578, 95% CI: (1.252-16.744)] higher odds of drinking water feacal contamination compared with those households who had used point of use water treatment. Households had latrine facility had two times [(AOR = 2.109, 95% CI:(1.058-4.201)] higher odds of having drinking water feacal contamination compared with their conterparts. Sanitary risk of intermediate and higher levels of households had about three times [(AOR = 2.935, 95% CI: (1.34-8.332)] and about four [(AOR = 4.274, 95% CI:(1.242-14.705)] higher odds of having drinking water feacal coliform contamination compared with households having low sanitary risk. Conclustion: -The result of this study showed that quality of the majority of house hold water sources in the study area did not fulfill the criteria of WHO drinking water standards for drinking water quality in terms of coliforms. Water treatmet use, latrine availablity, sanitary risk of contamination and time spent to get water for households had significant associate with the presence of faecal coliform in house hold drinking water KEYWORDS: Water quality, Risk factors, Coliform x