Microbial quality and pollution origin of montenegrin surface waters, the first comprehensive study

Background: Montenegro is characterized by numerous mountain springs and larger streams. Many of them are used as sources of drinking water, irrigation, but also for tourists’ recreation: kayaking, rafting, etc. Unfortunately, there is a lack of wastewater treatment plants as well as information about microbial water quality of many surface and ground waters. Objectives: Taking into consideration issue of scarce data about microbial water quality, the aim of this study was to locate hotspots of faecal pollution and investigate the source of pollution. Within the study, 25 sites were selected while three of them were not included in National monitoring program. Methods: To quantify the most probable number of Escherichia coli we used Colilert-18 System. The water quality based on this parameter was assessed according to Kirshner et al. (2009). For determination of the pollution origin, microbial source tracking method was employed. Indicators of human faecal pollution, markers BacHum and HF183II, and animal faecal pollution, markers BacR and Pig2Bac, were quantified with qPCR. Results: According to most probable number of E. coli, 40% sites were little polluted, 36% moderately, 16% critically and per 4% heavily and excessively polluted. Analysis of genetic faecal markers indicated the prevalence of human-as- sociated faecal pollution at all sites. Considering the results of the study, four sites were classified as hotspots of faecal pollution: downstream Pljevlja (Ćehotina River), downstream Vezišnica (Ćehotina River), wastewater outlet at Podgori- ca (Morača River), and downstream Bijelo Polje (Lim River)