Studies on Physicochemical and Microbial Profiles of Selected Hotel Swimming Pools in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, Nigeria

Abstract

Studies on physicochemical and microbial profiles of selected hotel swimming pools in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, Nigeria was carried out using standard methods. Six swimming pools of selected hotels within the Port Harcourt city that people use for recreational activity were selected for this study. The selection was done in such a way that all the zones within the city were considered. The hotels names were coded with alphabets for confidentiality. Each swimming pool was divided into up and down ends for this study. Average result obtained for both ends in each pool was taken as a sample value for each pool and was compared to World Health Organisation (WHO) standard for recreational water. Physicochemical results such as pH, alkalinity, calcium hardness, chlorine and residual chlorine of most of the studied pools were not within WHO standard. The microbial loads of the studied pools in terms of total coliform, faecal coliform and Escherichia coli were higher than WHO standard. There is no doubt that most of the studied hotel swimming pools fall short of WHO standard for recreational activity. This becomes important when the consequences of swimming in such pools to humans are considered. There is urgent need for the hotels hosting the studied swimming pools to adopt the important five keys to maintaining water quality in swimming pool, which include proper filtration, proper chlorination as well as adjustment of pH, total alkalinity and calcium hardness levels as stipulated by WHO standards. This study has shown the physicochemical and microbial profiles of selected hotel swimming pools in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, Nigeria.