Abstract

Safety and purity of drinking and cooking water sources in rural and riverine communities like Okerenkoko have posed a challenge for scientific discuss in recent times. Water devoid of both chemical and microbiological contaminants have been identified as a major key to wellness of any populace. In this study, eight potable water sources were obtained and evaluated for the study; the potable water sources obtained were treated to a 10-fold serial dilution and plated for aerobic bacterial, fungal, Salmonella-Shigella and Escherichia coli count. The antibiotics sensitivity testing employed the modified Kirby- Bauer method using the Abtek biological multiple disc. The multiple drug resistance was mathematically deduced using the standards and breakpoints. The NMU and George borehole had 5.8 Log10CFU/ml and 5.4 Log10CFU/ml for the total aerobic bacterial count while the total fungal count were 3.1 Log10CFU/ml and 3.6 Log10CFU/ml respectively. The culturable flora observed during the study were Bacillus sp, Escherichia sp., Staphylococcus sp., Streptococcus sp., Shigella sp., Proteus sp., Pseudomonas sp., Klebsiella sp., Vibrio sp. Micrococcus sp. and Escherichia coli. The percentage resistance for the antibiotics revealed cefuroxime and ceftazidime had 64%, while nitrofurantoin had 71% and ofloxacin had 36%. Proteus sp. (1) had an MDR of 1.0, Klebsiella sp. (3) had 0.67 while Salmonella sp. and Escherichia coli had a MDR of 0.22 and 0.11. The findings of the study underscores the health challenges associated with the usage of the available potable water sources in Okerenkoko community. There is need for a community-wide campaign and sensitization on some basic water purification approaches as possible corrective actions to improve the quality of water; government must intervene and provide a routine and robust evaluation for both water safety and sanitary quality in rural communities.

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