Reducing E. coli and Coliform in clean water using chlorine diffuser combined with white sand

Background: Water intended for hygiene, sanitation, and drinking must be free of physical, chemical, and microbiological pollutants. The most frequent microbiological contaminants in water are E. coli and Coliform bacteria. Chlorination, which uses chlorine compounds, is a widely used technique to eliminate germs from water. This process is regarded as effective and safe for sanitation, disinfection, and consumption. Purpose: To analyze differences in the reduction of E. coli and Coliform bacteria in water using the chlorine diffuser method combined with white sand. Method: A quasi-experimental method and a pretest posttest design, carried out at a boarding house x in Gonilan Kartasura village. The research sample was taken by purposive sampling. The sample criteria are water at the research location, namely Gonilan village which classified as densely populated. Research data was collected using observation techniques using observation sheets with three folds and three divisions of time span, namely 30 minutes, 45 minutes and 60 minutes. The data collected was then analyzed using the anova method to determine the average differences in group samples. Results: The application of a chlorine diffuser combined with white sand can reduce levels of E. coli bacteria. In the Anova test, the p-value scores were obtained at 0.045 and 0.031, thus the alternative hypothesis was accepted, namely that there was a decrease in E. coli and Coliform bacteria using the chlorine diffuser method combined with white sand. The research results in the 60th minute of the experiment went from 1 to 0. Meanwhile, there was no significant decrease in Coliform bacteria. Initially the Coliform level was 68.3, then after 60 minutes of experimentation it only decreased to 63.6. Conclusion: Based on the research carried out, it was concluded that there was a significant reduction in the levels of E. coli and Coliform bacteria using the chlorine diffuser combined with white sand with a higher dose of chlorine used.