Microbiological Quality Assessment of Borehole Water Stored In Household Plastic Tanks

Samuel Onuorah* Chimaobi Okoli Frederick Odibo

Abstract


Several diseases of humans and animals have been attributed to the consumption of contaminated water. In several communities in Nigeria, due to lack of public water supply, inhabitants have resorted to the use of water from privately –owned boreholes. The water is stored in various tanks for weeks in households till exhausted,Thus this study assessed the microbiological quality of water stored for three weeks in household plastic tanks.  Klebsiella pneumoniae, Enterobacter aerogenes, Serratia marcescens, Salmonella typhi, Bacillus sphaericus, Shigella flexneri, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Escherichia coli, Bacillus subtilis, Acinetobacter calcoaceticus, Staphylococcus aureus, Aspergillus flavus, Aspergillus niger, Rhizopus stolonifer, Penicillium digitatum and Mucor mucedo were isolated from the samples before and during storage.Bacillus subtilis was the predominant bacterium isolated from the samples before and during storage while Rhizopus stolonifer and Aspergillus niger were the predominant fungi isolated before and during storage respectively.  The total bacterial, fungal, faecal coliform, Salmonellae and Shigellae counts during storage were above the WHO permissible limit. This study showed that storage in plastic tanks impacted negatively on the microbiological quality of the water samples. Water must therefore not be stored for a long period in plastic tanks to ensure that its microbiological characteristics are not impaired.

Keywords


borehole water, microbiological quality, plastic tanks, storage

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References


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