Abstract: Fungi, above all filamentous fungi, occur almost everywhere in the environment, even in drinking water. Isolation of Fungi in the distribution systems of drinking water is receiving high attention of the researchers during the current years. Fungi in drinking water may be associated with Human health problems. Several reports of fungal growth in water from different countries are available. The developing countries like Pakistan have a low base in this area of research. This Lecture deals with the isolation of filamentous fungi, together with other critical parameters of drinking water in the distribution system of Hyderabad city. The isolated fungal species areAspergillus Falavus45%, AspergillusOryzae25%, Aspergillus Fumigatus25%, Aspergillus Niger50%, Aspergillus Nidulans6%, AspergillusGranulosus20%, Mucor Hiemalis3%, PenisilliumFunculsun6%, Absida Gluca3%, Trichopyton verrucosum4%. Out of 400 samples, 360 samples were found positive for fungal isolation together with bacteriological parameters at 09 locations out of 10. It is observed that free residual chlorine of 1.28 mg/l and total chlorine of 1.39 mg/l at location 08 can resist the fungi. This is the only location where no significant occurrence of fungi is isolated. No significant correlation-ship was found with the other. A brief discussion about the procedure of isolation of Fungi, its types, and effects on human health are the objectives of this plenary lecture.

Brief Biography of the Speaker:
Prof. Niaz A. Memon is an Assistant Professor in the department of civil/Environmental Engineering at Quaid-e-Awam University of Engineering Science & Technology, Nawabshah, PAKISTAN. He joined there in 1987. He graduated in Civil Engineering and then Masters and PhD in Environmental Engineering & management. His expertise is the application of Artificial Neural Networks and Drinking water quality monitoring. Niaz has many international publications on his credit in this area, as an author and co-author. He has reviewed many of the manuscripts. In 12th CSCC conference on Computers (2008), in Crete, Greece, his paper was declared as one of the best papers of the conference and the extended version was published in the "WSEAS TRANSACTIONS ON ENVIROENMENT AND DEVELOPMENT" volume 4, issue 8, August 2008. In 2009, Mr. Memon was one of the Plenary Speakers in 13th WSEAS International Conference, Rodos Island, Rodos, Greece. Hehas developed many ANN models for predicting the critical parameters of the drinking water, keeping in view that the safe drinking water is HEALTH and the sanitation is the "DIGINITY".