Abstract
Water from boreholes and packaged commercial sachet water from different areas in a community in southern Nigeria was analyzed with membrane filtration for a snapshot of heterotrophic count and coliforms. Two boreholes out of the 20 analyzed had counts of over 500 Cfu/mL and 7 boreholes indicated the presence of coliforms. Sixteen samples out of 20 sachet water brands analyzed showed a regulatory product registration code, whereas 4 samples had no number or code indicating that they were not registered. The heterotrophic count of all sachet water was well within the limit for all samples analyzed, and coliform was detected in only two samples. The overall quality of borehole water in the community studied was rated D (65%), whereas the sachet water was rated C (90%) according to the World Health Organization (WHO) surveillance guidelines. Improvements in water quality structure in the community studied are required to help achieve WHO sustainable development goals on water sanitation. The etiology, virulence properties, epidemiology, and pathogenicity of bacteria associated with borehole and sachet water are also discussed.
Highlights
Up to 2.1 billion people worldwide lack access to safe, readily available water at home according to a World Health Organization (WHO)/UNICEF report [1]
The report emphasized that majority of the people without good quality water are from developing countries and the lives of millions of children are at risk every day, with many dying from preventable diseases caused by poor water supply
3.1 Heterotrophic and total coliform count of borehole samples. This survey was carried out to have an overview of the bacterial load in water quality of some boreholes in the community surveyed
Summary
Up to 2.1 billion people worldwide lack access to safe, readily available water at home according to a WHO/UNICEF report [1]. The report emphasized that majority of the people without good quality water are from developing countries and the lives of millions of children are at risk every day, with many dying from preventable diseases caused by poor water supply. The importance of good quality water is the reason why clean water and sanitation have been included as goal number 6 out of the 17 proposed sustainable development goals (SDGs) of the United Nations [2]. In Nigeria, the public water supply is in a state of comatose in most towns and villages and dry taps without any hope of water running through the taps soon affect millions of homes. This has forced individuals and institutions to resort
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