Abstract

In the framework of this study, 13 samples of well water were collected from the Governorate of Homs (Al-Arman Al-Janoubi, two samples from Wadi Al-Dahab, Al-Zahra), and from the countryside (Al-Jabriya, Al-Awar, two samples from Zaidal, Qatina, Al-Dar Al-Kabira, Jandar, Al-Mushrifa, Al-Madabae). Our aim was to detect the presence of Salmonella, Shigella, E.coli, Klebsiella,  Pseudomonas, and Listeria bacteria in well water, based on a set of cultural and microscopic characteristics and some biochemical tests through the use of the three-test method (probabilistic, confirmatory and complementary test ) and the membrane filter method. The results of the  probabilistic test for well water samples taken from (Al-Jabriya, Al-Awar, two samples from Zaidal, Qatina, Al-Dar Al-Kabira, two samples from Wadi Al-Dahab, Al-Mushrifa, Al-Madabae, and Al-Zahra) showed the appearance of gas in the Durham tubes after 48 hours of incubation, which indicates the possibility of contamination bacteria belonging to the coliform group. Confirmatory and complementary tests showed the appearance of smooth, metallic-glossy colonies on eosin medium, methylene blue short, gram-negative bacilli belonging to E.coli, which indicated that they are not suitable for drinking and irrigating crops. In the samples of Jandar and Al-Arman Al-Janoubi, no gas appeared after 48 hours of incubation, which indicated that they are suitable for drinking and irrigating crops. When using the membrane filtration method, we found that all studied samples were contaminated with the genus Klebsiella, except for the samples of Jandar and Al-Arman Al-Janoubi, which were also found to be free of pathogenic bacteria Salmonella, Shigella, Pseudomonas, Listeria, unlike the rest of the studied samples.