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A Glass of Clean Drinking Water Contains Ten Million ‘Good’ Bacteria: Study

Do you know that a glass of clean water can contain millions of bacteria in it? Yes, you are reading right. Researchers have found that our drinking water contains more than 10 million bacteria but all are good for health as they help in the purifying water.

The new study claimed that our drinking water is to a large extent purified by millions of “good bacteria” found in water pipes and purification plants.  Researchers were astonished to find that water on such a large scale was purified naturally by bacteria in pipes and purification plants.

So far, the knowledge about them has been practically non-existent, researchers said. A glass of clean drinking water actually contains 10 million bacteria. But that is how it should be — clean tap water always contains harmless bacteria, researchers said.

These bacteria and other microbes grow in the drinking water treatment plant and on the inside of our water pipes, which can be seen in the form of a thin, sticky coating — a so-called biofilm. All surfaces from the raw water intake to the tap are covered in this biofilm. These new findings show that the diversity of species of bacteria in water pipes is huge and that bacteria may play a vital role in purifying the water in pipes than previously thought. Among other things, the researchers suspect that a large part of water purification takes place in the pipes and not only in water purification plants.

“A previously completely unknown ecosystem has revealed itself to us. Formerly, you could hardly see any bacteria at all and now, thanks to techniques such as massive DNA sequencing and flow cytometry, we suddenly see eighty thousand bacteria per milliliter in drinking water,” said Catherine Paul from Lund University in Sweden.

At least, a couple of thousand different species live in the water pipes. According to the researchers, there is a connection between the composition of bacteria and water quality. “We suspect there are ‘good’ bacteria that help purify the water and keep it safe – similar to what happens in our bodies. Our intestines are full of bacteria, and most of the time when we are healthy, they help us digest our food and fight illness,” said Paul.

Although the research was conducted in southern Sweden, bacteria and biofilms are found all over the world, in plumbing, taps and water pipes. This knowledge will be very useful for countries when updating and improving their water pipe systems, researchers said.

Moreover, the quality of water might be directly proportional to the amount of bacteria present in water; however, further study is needed to confirm the find.

The research was published in the journal Microbes and Environments.