Bacterial contamination of reusable bottled drinking water in Ecuador

Abstract

In northern coastal Ecuador, water is routinely sold in 20 L reusable bottles for household consumption. These bottles are filled at central treatment facilities and distributed by private water companies. Similar bottled water markets are found in countries around the world. Commercially available bottled water offers an alternative source of drinking water in locations where piped infrastructure may be unsafe or non-existent. In this study we found that 73% (n = 94/128) of water sold in reusable containers in the Esmeraldas province of Ecuador was contaminated with coliform bacteria. In comparison, 25% (n = 9/36) of non-reusable bottles and 9% (n = 2/22) of water samples taken directly from the water treatment system contained coliform, suggesting that most observed bacterial contamination occurred due to inadequate cleaning of reusable bottles between use. The coliform contamination may pose a health risk to the Esmeraldas population. The present study may be indicative of similar situations in low- and middle-income countries around the world, given the widespread use of reusable bottles for water.

A comparative analysis of drinking water employing metagenomics

“…Bacterial genera, e.g., Enterobacter, Klebsiella, Citrobacter, and Escherichia, have also been used as indicators of total coliform bacteria as they inhabit the intestinal tract of warm-blooded animals, but also soil, water, grain, and vegetation [89]. Fecal indicator and coliform bacteria have been reported in DWDS [90,91] and BW [92,93]. In the current study, no fecal indicator bacteria, i.e., Escherichia coli or enterococci, were detected in any of the DW samples analyzed.…”

Reusable Water Bottles: Release of Inorganic Elements, Phthalates, and Bisphenol A in a “Real Use” Simulation Experiment

“…The great variability in released amounts among all the studied bottles is likely due to the kind and quality of the materials of which they are made. This variability occurs mostly when considering metallic bottles (bottles n. 1-13), stainless steel included (bottle n. 7), while non-metallic ones (bottles n. [14][15][16][17][18][19][20] showed concentrations quite similar to each other.…”

“…The biological risk associated with the use/reuse of water bottles has been evaluated by recent studies [11][12][13][14], demonstrating high bacterial and fungal growth when cleaning and maintaining practices are not correctly adopted. To date, however, the same attention has not been given to the chemical risk related to the possible release of elements and/or compounds to the water from the internal surface of the bottles.…”

The limits to growth of buen vivir socialism: Ecuador's alternative development model from 2007 to 2017

“…El modelo socio-económico ecuatoriano generó durante los años analizados múltiples formas de crecimiento. Los estudios indican que Ecuador es un país en el que la contaminación crece año a año (Barraza et al 2020;Carrillo et al 2021;Estrella et al 2019;Mills et al 2018) y los recursos naturales disminuyen (Global Footprint Network 2022). El proceso de deforestación que se está viviendo en todo el país lleva décadas siendo un problema especialmente preocupante.…”