Risques alimentaires liés aux eaux de consommation

Abstract

Water is essential to human life and access to it is a fundamental right. Fresh water is increasingly rare on earth, hence the need to treat various types of natural water to ensure the good quality of distributed water. But, despite made efforts, drinking water can be contaminated. This work is a physico-chemical study of water supplied to part of Setifian population. Analyses in hydrologybromatology laboratory of Medicine Faculty of Setif were carried out, in order to determine pH, nitrate contents, chlorides, and organic matter. Other analyses were carried out at sampling time to determine total, free residual chlorine and ammonium ions contents. According to our results, the analysed waters met Algerian and international standards requirements for pH, nitrate, chloride, organic matter and ammonium ion contents. On the other hand, they presented insufficient levels of free and total residual chlorine, which can endanger consumers health. Finally, it is very important and necessary to establish a rigorous protocol to determine the cause of this low residual chlorine level and to correct it to guarantee consumers safety.