Abstract:
Water quality from water vending machine is important to water users. If water vending machine and waters are not safe and contaminated. It will affect the health of the people consumed water. Therefore, care control the safety standard must be taken. This study sought to study the drinking water quality of water vending machines and the perceived safety of water users. The samples include 54 machines and 162 peoples who used water from each machines, 3 persons per machine. The water vending machines characteristics and bacterial contamination were evaluated by using the drinking water test kits (A11) and SI-2. Perception of safety was collected by structured interviews and analyzed by percentage, mean, standard deviation and Pearson Correlation.
Results showed that the water vending machine 10 machines (18.5%) contaminated with coliform bacteria at water dispenser and 14 machines (25.9%) contaminated with coliform bacteria from water. The environment of the water vending machine is mostly insecure 48 machines (88.9%) are location condition and insecure 44 machines (81.1%) the safety condition is low. Most of the 51 machines (94.4%) are poorly water condition and quality improvement. Most of the 32 machines (59.2%) are in poorly maintained and unsafe cleaning condition. All machines have no control over the water consumption standards and sturdy. Perception of safety of water users showed that there was no evidence of 36 cleaners and filters replacing the filters (66.7%).The water inlet cover is defective or open. Secondly, moss and dust were found in the water dispenser, found moss and rust on the tip, found water impurities. There were 13 machines (24.1%), 4 machines (7.4%), 4 machines (7.4%), and 2 machines (3.7%), respectively. Pearson Correlation showed that there was positively correlated at the 0.05 level of significance between the presence of algae, dust in the water supply and contaminated with coliform bacteria in drinking. Therefore, it should be encouraged to have a standardized drinking water quality standard, and encourage entrepreneurs to keep the water vending machine in a clean and safe condition.