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Review
. 2024 Feb 16;10(4):e26380.
doi: 10.1016/j.heliyon.2024.e26380. eCollection 2024 Feb 29.

Occurrences and implications of pathogenic and antibiotic-resistant bacteria in different stages of drinking water treatment plants and distribution systems

Chimdi M Kalu  1 , Khuthadzo L Mudau  1 , Vhahangwele Masindi  1   2 , Grace N Ijoma  1 , Memory Tekere  1
Affiliations
Review

Occurrences and implications of pathogenic and antibiotic-resistant bacteria in different stages of drinking water treatment plants and distribution systems

Chimdi M Kalu et al. Heliyon. .

Abstract

Different stages of drinking water treatment plants (DWTPs) play specific roles in diverse contaminants' removal present in natural water sources. Although the stages are recorded to promote adequate treatment of water, the occurrence of pathogenic bacteria (PB) and antibiotic-resistant bacteria (ARB) in the treated water and the changes in their diversity and abundance as it passed down to the end users through the drinking water distribution systems (DWDSs), is a great concern, especially to human health. This could imply that the different stages and the distribution system provide a good microenvironment for their growth. Hence, it becomes pertinent to constantly monitor and document the diversity of PB and ARB present at each stage of the treatment and distribution system. This review aimed at documenting the occurrence of PB and ARB at different stages of treatment and distribution systems as well as the implication of their occurrence globally. An exhaustive literature search from Web of Science, Science-Direct database, Google Scholar, Academic Research Databases like the National Center for Biotechnology Information, Scopus, and SpringerLink was done. The obtained information showed that the different treatment stages and distribution systems influence the PB and ARB that proliferate. To minimize the human health risks associated with the occurrence of these PB, the present review, suggests the development of advanced technologies that can promote quick monitoring of PB/ARB at each treatment stage and distribution system as well as reduction of the cost of environomics analysis to promote better microbial analysis.

Keywords: Antibiotic-resistant bacteria; Antibiotic-resistant genes; Drinking water treatment; Pathogenic bacteria; Water distribution system.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Percentage occurrence of the pathogenic bacteria genera across the different stages of drinking water treatment plants and distribution system based on the collated information from studies between 2013 and 2023 (a decade).
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
Percentage occurrence of antibiotic resistant bacterial genera based on collated studies done between 2013 and 2023 (a decade) on natural water sources, drinking water treatment stages and distribution system.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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