Physico-Chemical and Bacteriological Quality of Drinking Water Sources in Calabar Municipality, Nigeria

Abstract

This study evaluated the physico-chemical and the bacteriological quality of five different sources of drinking water in Calabar metropolis, Nigeria, to give a fair geographical representative of the town and to contribute to our understanding of the quality of drinking water in the metropolis. The physico-chemical characteristics such as pH, temperature, turbidity, conductivity, colour, Iron, dissolved oxygen, Calcium, Magnesium, alkalinity, total hardness, Manganese, Sulphate, Chloride, Phosphate, Sodium, Zinc, Copper, total dissolved solid, Nitrate, Nitrite, Ammonia, Ammonium and Potassium were determined following the procedures prescribed by American Public Health Association Standard Method. The bacteriological analysis was carried out using the standard microbiological standard for analysis of water for total and faecal coliform count. The mean temperature of the evaluated waters ranged from 23.03°C-29.3°C, mean pH ranged from 4.37-6.76, while turbidity had a mean range of 0.16 NTU-4.13 NTU. Conductivity ranged between 39.29 µs/cm - 120.7 µs/cm, dissolved oxygen with 13.30 mg/L - 4.19 mg/L, total dissolved solids ranged from 72.4 mg/L -23.5 mg/L, while the mean for iron concentration ranged from 0.12 mg/L - 0.99 mg/L. Similarly, the mean for total hardness was 34.2 mg/L - 17.1 mg/L and 7.93 mg/L - 6.71 mg/L for total alkalinity. Others includes Manganese (0.88 mg/L - 0.02 mg/L), Magnesium (16.5 mg/L - 9.9 mg/L), Calcium (9.77 mg/L - 7.20 mg/L, Nitrate (14.6 mg/L - 3.66 mg/L), Nitrite (0.076 mg/L -0.009 mg/L), Ammonia (0.89 mg/L - 0.25 mg/L), Ammonium (0.52 mg/L - 0.013 mg/L), Zinc (1.01 mg/L - 0.34 mg/L), Chloride (5.73 mg/L - 0.364 mg/L), Fluoride (0.76 mg/L - 0.277 mg/L), Copper (0.61 mg/L - 0.18 mg/L), Sodium (2.73 mg/L - 0.180 mg/L), potassium (5.73 mg/L - 2.0 mg/L), Sulphate (14.8 mg/L - 3.69 mg/L and Phosphate with 4.8 mg/L - 3.69 mg/L. The total coliform count for bottled water ranged between 2.00 cfu/100 mL – 19.00 cfu/100 mL, the total coliform range for sachet water were 6.00 cfu/100 mL and 15.00 cfu/100 mL and no faecal coliform was detected. Public water had no growth at all, the stream and borehole bacteriological analysis ranged from 27x101 cfu/ mL - 55x101 cfu/mL and 12 cfu/100 mL - 33 cfu/100 mL for total coliform respectively. Faecal coliform ranged from 15x101 cfu/ mL - 52x101 cfu/ mL for stream and 9.00 cfu100/ mL – 16.00 cfu/100 mL for borehole. A total of seven (7) different bacteria species were isolated from the sampled drinking water sources. These included Proteus spp., Streptococcus spp., Enterobacter spp., Pseudomonas spp., E.coli, Chromobacter spp., Salmonella spp. and Enterococcus spp. This study reveals a high level of poor quality sources of water in the metropolis and makes need for urgent health intervention.

Evaluation of the Potability of Water Sources in Yakurr Local Government Area of Cross River State, Nigeria

“…Water is the most essential product that is taken by humans which must be prevented from deterioration in quality. It is also essentials for life and life has evolved in water due to its unique chemical and physical properties 2 . Okorafor et al, 1 highlighted his point of view when they declared that "water functions in a variety of ways within a cell" can't be debated.…”

“…Life originated from water, it is the matrix of life and it's also a solvent and medium. Water is also the medium by which diseases such as typhoid fever, dysentery and cholera can be spread from one human to another" 2,3 . Treatment are performed to remove pathogenic micro-organism and also decrease turbidity, eliminate taste, odour, remove nuisance chemicals, such as manganese or iron and soften the water to make it more useful for consumption, laundry and other industrial processes 4 .…”

Quality assessment of bacterial load present in drinking water in Woreta town, Ethiopia

“…Diarrhea remains a major killer in children and it is estimated that 80% of all illness in developing countries is related to water and sanitation; and that 15% of child deaths under the ages of 5 years in developing countries results from diarrheal diseases (Kassie and Hyelom, 2017;Malhotra et al, 2015). The human pathogens that present serious risk of diseases whenever present in drinking water include Salmonella species, Shigella species, Yersinia enterocolitica, Campylobacter species, various viruses such as Hepatitis A virus, Hepatitis E virus, Rotavirus and parasites like Entamoeba histolytica, and Giardia lamblia (Agbo et al, 2019).…”

Assessment of the effects of cassava mill effluent on the soil and its microbiota in Biase local government area of Cross river state, Nigeria

“…Cassava effluent is a source of pollution, if discharged into the environment before proper treatment [1]. Pollution of our environment occurs when waste water discharged from cassava processing are allowed to spread slowly into the soil or flow into streams or when cassava roots are fermented in surface water like ponds and streams, upstream of drinking water sources [2,3,4,5] reported that suspended solid particles are important pollutants as pathogens are carried on the surface and body of the particles.…”

“…A fair volume of the cassava effluent is carried in solution, others have become so finely divided that they exist in a colloidal state, while others go into suspension [3,8]. Water pollution causes nearly 14,000 deaths per day, basically due to contamination of drinking water sources [3,4,8]. The discharge of waste products and contaminants into surface runoff get into rivers through drainage systems, leaching into liquid spills, groundwater and wastewater discharges and littering.…”