ABSTRACT
Water may serve as a source of many infectious diseases including cholera, typhoid, paratyphoid, dysentery, brucellosis, leptospirosis, hepatitis and poliomyelitis. Infectious diseases related to water are widespread at present despite all measures taken to stem them. According to some researchers, 80 per cent of all diseases are related to the abuse of sanitary standards for water supply (Zakharchenko et al., 1993). Thus, in 1993 there was an increase in the number of waterrelated intestinal infections (On the sanitary and epidemiological situation, 1993), with 17 such outbreaks, 10 of which were dysentery. The worst affected areas were in the North Osetia Republic (340 people were taken ill), and in the regions of Arkhangelsk (340 people), Krasnodar (181 people) and Krasnoyarsk (171 people). These outbreaks of intestinal infections were linked to significant microbial pollution of water supply sources. Another example of infection through water supply was an outbreak of gastrointestinal infections and typhoid in 1993 in the Rostov Region, where 300 people were taken ill in the town of Volgodonsk. In some regions of the former USSR, cholera Vibrio were registered annually in surface waters.
