FACTORS
AFFECTING THE GROWTH PERFORMANCE OF CHILDREN OF NORTH-BENGAL RURAL REGLON
OF INDIA, BACTERLOL OGLCAL ANALYSIS OF DRINKING WATER AND A COMPARLSON WITH
DIARRHOEAL DISEASE
Mridula
Chatterjee*, A. K. Saha and R. K. Samanta
* Department of Pediatric
Medicine, North Bengal
Medical College and Hospital, Darjeeling, India
Expert Systems Laboratory,
Department of Computer Science & Applications, North Bengal University,
Darjeeling, India
There are many environmental factors
affecting the growth performance amongst the rural children in developing
countries. Out of which, poor source of drinking water is one of the most
important factors, as this being responsible for frequent episode of
diarrhoeal disease (each attack of diarrhoea causes loss of 1-2% body
weight per day). In this study 72 drinking water samples were taken from
various sources in North-Bengal (42 during post-monsoon and 30 during
pre-monsoon) and bacteriological analysis was done. A comparison is also
made with incidence of diarrhoeal disease in the same region. The result
shows 64.29% of samples during post-monsoon and 90% of samples during
pre-monsoon having foecal contamination, and thus not suitable for drinking
purpose. Further high incidence of diarrhoeal disease corresponds with the
high rate of contamination (of drinking water) during summer season.