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.