RESUMEN
Macro- and microorganism activities are important for the effectiveness of the slow sand filtration (SSF), where native microorganisms remove contaminants mainly by substrate competition, predation, and antagonism. The aim of the present study was to evaluate the addition of the oligodynamic metals iron, copper, and brass, inserted separately into SSF to enhance pollutant removal in water samples. Four laboratory-scale SSFs were built and tested: control, iron, copper, and brass. Water analysis included physicochemical evaluation, total and fecal coliform quantification. An analysis on microbial communities in the SSFs schmutzdecke was achieved by using 16S rRNA amplification, the Illumina MiSeq platform, and the QIIME bioinformatics software. The results demonstrated that inorganic and organic contaminants such as coliforms were removed up to 90%. The addition of metals had no significant effect (p > 0.05) on the other parameters. The microbial community analysis demonstrated different compositions of the SSF with brass-influent, where the eukaryote Streptophyta was predominant (31.4%), followed by the acetic acid bacteria Gluconobacter (24.6%), and Acetobacteraceae (7.7%), these genera were absent in the other SSF treatments. In conclusion, the use of a SSF system can be a low cost alternative to reduce microbial contamination in water and thus reduce gastrointestinal diseases in rural areas.