A challenge in washing water with the sun: 24h of SODIS fails to inactivate Acanthamoeba castellanii cysts and internalized Pseudomonas aeruginosa under strong real sun conditions

Despite access to drinking water being a basic human right, the availability of safe drinking water remains a privilege that many do not have and as a result, many lives are lost each year due to waterborne diseases associated with the consumption of biologically unsafe water. To face this situation, different low-cost household drinking water treatment technologies (HDWT) have been developed, and among them is solar disinfection (SODIS). Despite the effectiveness of SODIS and the epidemiological gains being consistently documented in the literature, there is a lack of evidence of the effectiveness of the batch-SODIS process against protozoan cysts as well as their internalized bacteria under real sun conditions. This work evaluated the effectiveness of the batch-SODIS process on the viability of Acanthamoeba castellanii cysts, and internalized Pseudomonas aeruginosa. Dechlorinated tap water contaminated with 5.6 × 103 cysts/L, contained in PET (polyethylene terephthalate) bottles, was exposed for 8 h a day to strong sunlight (531-1083 W/m2 of maximum insolation) for 3 consecutive days. The maximum water temperature inside the reactors ranged from 37 to 50 °C. Cyst viability was assessed by inducing excystment on non-nutrient agar, or in water with heat-inactivated Escherichia coli. After sun exposure for 0, 8, 16 and 24 h, the cysts remained viable and without any perceptible impairment in their ability to excyst. 3 and 5.5 log CFU/mL of P. aeruginosa were detected in water containing untreated and treated cysts, respectively, after 3 days of incubation at 30 °C. The batch-SODIS process is unable to inactivate A. castellanii cysts as well as its internalized bacteria. Although the use of batch SODIS by communities should continue to be encouraged, SODIS-disinfected water should be consumed within 3 days.

Risk assessment and inactivation of invertebrate-internalized bacteria in pilot-scale biological activated carbon filtration

It is well documented that invertebrates can ingest and transport pathogenic bacteria, thus protecting the bacteria against disinfection in the laboratory. However, the risk assessment of and corresponding disinfection methods for natural invertebrate-internalized bacteria in biological activated carbon (BAC) filtration systems remain poorly understood. In this study, the risk of natural invertebrate-internalized bacteria was comprehensively assessed and methods to inactivate these bacteria were compared in a pilot-scale BAC filtration column study lasting one year. Seven groups of invertebrates dominated by rotifers and crustaceans were detected in the filtration column, five of which were collected for quantitative/qualitative identification of the bacteria they internalized. The community composition of internalized bacteria was analyzed via polymerase chain reaction-denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis (PCR-DGGE) coupled with sequence analysis of 16S rRNA gene fragments. Results showed that the average numbers of internalized bacteria per organism ranged from 160 to 6000, which increased exponentially with invertebrate body length. Some of the invertebrate-internalized bacteria were identified as opportunistic human pathogens, but no direct human pathogens were detected. A model was developed to calculate the residual bacteria concentration. Using this model, it was determined that an average of 800-100,000 CFU/m3 internalized bacteria would be protected and then released into the distribution mains after chlorination of 50 mg/L·min, with rotifers and copepods the dominant sources. Ozonation was more effective than both chlorination and UV radiation for inactivating the invertebrate-internalized bacteria.

Inactivation mechanism of chlorination in Escherichia coli internalized in Limnoithona sinensis and Daphnia magna

Zooplankton may harbor microorganisms in the aquatic environment, thus protecting them from disinfection during drinking water treatment. However, few studies have evaluated the protective effect of internalization by zooplankton against bacterial disinfection. In this study, we investigated the role of zooplankton (Limnoithona sinensis and Daphnia magna) as a refuge for ingested bacteria against inactivation by chlorination. Only 30% of chlorine reached the internalized bacteria inside the digestive tract of zooplankton. However, this was sufficient to achieve 1.4 log inactivation of internalized Escherichia coli in L. sinensis and 1.2 log inactivation in D. magna at Ct values of 80 mg min/L. Inactivation of internalized bacteria was achieved through the active transfer of free chlorine in the bulk water into the zooplankton digestive tract during grazing activity. D. magna was more sensitive to hypochlorous acid than L. sinensis, and its grazing behavior was inhibited during the inactivation experiment.