An investigation on physico-chemical and microbial water quality of public swimming pools in Seremban

A variety of microorganisms can be found in public swimming pools, which may be introduced in the pool water in a number of ways. In many cases, the risk of illness or infection has been linked to faecal contamination of the water, due to faeces released by swimmers or a contaminated source water or, in outdoor pools, may be the result of direct animal contamination (e.g. from birds and rodents). The physico-chemical (temperature, residual chlorine, turbidity, pH, and total dissolve solids) as well as microbiological (total coliform, pseudomonas aeruginosa and staphylococcus aureus) were analyzed, and the results were compared with the WHO standards. The mean of residual chlorine was 1.66 (± 0.81), the mean of pH was 7.57 (± 0.23), the mean of turbidity was 0.60 (± 0.49), the mean of total calcium (as CaCO3) was 158.16, the mean of TDS (Total Dissolved Solids) was 858.69, all the cyanuric acid levels were below 5 and the mean of nitrate was 1.90. However, there was no presence of total coliform, staphylococcus aureus and pseudomonas aeruginosa in public swimming pool. The results of the study are expected to provide a guidance to the swimming pool operators and owners in ensuring that the swimming pool quality is well managed. The knowledge and practice of the swimming operators were also investigated. Pearson Correlation method was used to identify the relationship between the knowledge and practice. It can be concluded that there was a strong correlation which is 0.687 and there is a statistical significant (p < 0.05) between knowledge and practice of the swimming operators at public swimming pool.