Abstract:
Nearly 80% of the population in the
Colombo district fulfll their major requirement from
the Kelani river. Recent studies are interoperating:
most groundwater and surface water in Sri Lanka are
contaminated with waterborne pathogens and antibiotics. In the present study, nine antibiotic resistance
genes (ARGs) were screened which were belonging
to two common groups of antibiotic: penicillin —
OPR D, bla TEM, bla OXA, amp a, and amp b — and
tetracycline — tet A, tet M, tet B, and tet S. The results
of the study reveled that the surface and groundwater of the entire lower part of the Kelani river basin
were contaminated with TC and FC (98%). None
of the penicillin and tetracycline group antibiotics were detected either surface or groundwater samples
except the Kelani river mouth (amoxicillin (AMX)
at 0.003±0.001 µg/ml). The results showed that 5
to 15% of surface water samples were positive for
penicillin resistance genes (bla TEM, bla OXA, OPR D,
amp a, amp b) where~10% of groundwater samples
were positive against tetracycline resistance genes
(tet A, tet M, tet S, tet B). Among the penicillin resistance genes, the bla TEM (700.576× 102
copy/ml) was
recorded as the highest concentration where the highest tet A gene (439.875× 102
copy/ml) was detected
among the tetracycline resistance genes. Therefore,
water quality management and regular monitoring are
essential to maintain the quality of drinking water in
the meandering part of the Kelani river basin to safeguard river water consumers.
