vii Safe water and adequate sanitation are basic rights of people and fundamental to human development. However, large proportion of the world population, particularly in low income countries, lack access to safe water and adequate sanitation. Ethiopia is one of the countries with poor coverage of sanitation, drinking water and the percentage of people practicing open defecation is high. Data on the water, sanitation and hygiene in peri-urban areas is scarce because research and intervention have focused on rural and urban areas. The objective of this study is to assess the bacteriological quality of drinking water as well as sanitary and hygienic status of peri urban areas in Bahir Dar city. A community based cross sectional study was conducted in peri-urban areas of Bahir Dar. The water sample was collected from 50 households and taken two times per day (morning and afternoon). Assessments of sanitary and hygienic practices were done through doorto-door observation checklist and face-to-face interview from 384 households. Among these 50 households were selected by systematic random sampling for water analysis. The bacteriological quality of drinking water was evaluated by most probable number (MPN) technique. The data obtained from water samples were analyzed by using a paired sample T-test and sanitary and hygienic conditions analyzed with linear regression. In terms of total coliform counts, in the first round the water samples from majority of the households (68%) and in the second round about one third (34%) of the households were satisfactory for human consumption. However, in terms of fecal coliform, in the first round 41 (82%) and in the second round only 16 (32%) of the households were satisfactory. The mean value of total and fecal coliforms increased from morning to afternoon ranging from 5.56 to 36.34 and 0.86 to 7.46, respectively. The fecal contamination is increased in the second round with significant difference (p=0.021). Among the households, 155 (44.5%) obtain their drinking water by buying from other private tap water (water vendors) and majority 249 (64.9%) travel from 10 to 30 minutes to get water. One hundred twenty (31.3%) of the households do not have latrine and practiced open space defecation. This study shows that the quality of drinking water in the study area is poor and the storage container, withdrawing method, living with livestock are associated factors for fecal contamination. Open defecation and shared latrines with other households, poor hygiene of latrine were observed in the study community. Further studies are needed to determine the exact point of contamination and the seasonal variation in contamination level and sanitary conditions in the study area. Key Words: Bahir Dar city, Coliforms, Hygiene, Periurban, Sanitation, Water supply