Water Disinfection of Rural Communities by Solar Radiation: Effects of the Bottle Material

Abstract

The present study used the fecal coliform and heterotrophic plate count (HPC) tests to evaluate the efficiency of solar disinfection in inactivating fecal coliforms in the drinking water of the rural communities of Kamyaran County, Kurdistan, Iran. The fecal coliform and HPC tests determined the bacteriological content of the samples to be approximately equal to 1100 MPN/100 mL and greater than 200 CFU/100 mL, respectively. The contaminated water was subjected to solar radiation under a similar exposure time in 3 different bottles: Bright glass, dark glass, and PET (plastic bottle). The dark bottle glass conferred a more desirable disinfection efficiency than did the other 2 bottles, probably on the strength of its superior ability to accumulate the solar heat and light by restricting light passage and, thus, to inactivate higher values of fecal coliform and HPC bacteria.