Quality of Packaged Drinking Water Marketed in Douala - Cameroon

Abstract

Quality and safety of water are very important for the health. The proliferation of conditioned drinking water in urban areas of Cameroon these years raises the problem of quality control. This research was then conducted in Douala town, to determine microbiological and physicochemical qualities of local and imported conditioned drinking water, in order to inform consumers and help them to make better choices. After the survey carried out with the population in Douala town, 32 drinking packaged water in polyethylene bags and bottles were collected and analyzed. The choice was made according to the amount of the persons using this water. The research of the total germs was done by the Plate Count Agar, the coliforms determined by the Eosin Methylen Blue and staphylococcus by the Chapman medium. The hardness, the concentration of calcium and magnesium were determined by complexometric method using tetra acetic diamine ethylen (EDTA). The pH, the turbidity and the conductivity were determined respectively by a pH meter, turbidimeter and a conductimeter. Chlorides and nitrates were measured by UV spectrometric method. According to the results obtained, consumers surveyed choose a type of brand water for economic reasons, 82 % of trademarks investigated had worst sanitary safety. The analytical results demonstrated that 76 % of water produced in Douala are soft (0°F 43°F) and highly mineralized. Water packed in bags harbored numerous species of bacteria including Pseudomonas cepacia, Acinetobacteria, and nonpathogenic Staphylococcus; their densities were respectively, 23x103 ± 3605,55 CFU.100 mL-1, 22x103 ± 1732,05 to 54x103 ± 4582,57 CFU.100 mL-1 and 23x103 ± 2000 CFU.100 mL-1. Conditioned water produced in Douala (in bags) had the worse microbiological quality than the imported water. On the contrary they are softer than imported water.