Objective To analyze drinking water consumption structure and sanitary condition in Minhang District of Shanghai, and to provide reference for hygiene surveillance and supervision.
Methods Households (n=270) from Minhang District of Shanghai were recruited by stratified random sampling technique for a questionnaire survey on drinking water consumption structure, and drinking water samples were collected from 53 households and analyzed for hygienic quality.
Results In the households utilizing single sourced drinking water, the municipal water supply accounted for the largest proportion of drinking water consumption structure (70%), followed by in-house purifier treated water (18.1%), bottled or barreled water (7.4%), water from instant purified water vending stations (3.3%), and beverage (1.1%), respectively, and there was a significant difference in drinking water consumption structure among households categorized by type of town neighborhood (χ2=35.073, P< 0.001). In the households utilizing mixed sourced drinking water, the leading compositions of drinking water consumption structure were municipal water supply (34.4%), municipal water supply and beverage (31.8%), in-house purifier treated water and beverage (9.3%), as well as inhouse purifier treated water (8.5%). Moreover, all water hygiene indices met the corresponding national drinking water safety limits in samples of municipal water supply and reverse osmosis in-house purifier treated water, while at least one hygiene index was found unqualified in other types of drinking water. The unqualified rates of standard plate-count bacteria were 50.0% and 75.0% for bottled/barreled drinking water and bottled/barreled purified water, respectively; the unqualified rates of standard plate-count bacteria, total coliforms, and zinc were 25.0%, 10.0%, and 15.0% respectively for in-house purifier treated water; the unqualified rate of standard plate-count bacteria was 25.0% for the water samples from instant purified water vending stations.
Conclusion Municipal water supply is most widely used, and significant differences in drinking water consumption structure exist among households categorized by type of town neighborhood. Therefore, more attention should be paid to the hygiene surveillance and supervision of bottled/barreled water, in-house purifier treated water, and water products of instant purified water vending stations.
DownLoad: