Sanitary Status and Bio-monitoring of Surface Water Quality in the City of Maroua (Far North, Cameroon)

Abstract

A study to assess the physico-chemical and microbiological quality of surface water was conducted from September 2019 to September 2020 in the town of Maroua. With the objective of evaluating the physico-chemical and microbiological quality of the surface water of this town. The sampling stations were chosen on 3 main watercourses in each district of the town. Sampling was done on a fortnightly basis for one year. The results were grouped by seasons. The physico-chemical analyzes consisted of measuring the following parameters: temperature, pH, electrical conductivity, turbidity, chloride, sodium and sulphate content. The biological analyzes of the water focused on the search for bacteria, yeasts and microscopic fungi. The spatiotemporal variations of the physico-chemical parameters revealed water with relatively high temperatures during the two seasons. Suspended solids are generally higher in water during the rainy season (45, 227, 321 and 427 mg/l respectively at M4, M1, M5 and M3) reflecting on high turbidity over 2800 NTU during both seasons at M2 station in Kaliao mayo. The microbiology of water has shown three groups of microorganisms like bacteria, yeasts and fungi. From the microorganisms isolated, the majority were bacteria 84%, yeasts 8% and fungi 8%. The most represented germs in surface water’s samples in Maroua are by medical interest importance: <i>Salmonella</i> spp., <i>Vibrio</i> spp., <i>Legionella</i> spp., then <i>Campylobacter</i> spp. and <i>Aeromonas</i> spp.. Alongside, <i>Mycobacterium </i>species, <i>Candida</i> spp., <i>Cryptococcus</i> spp. and <i>Trichophyton</i> spp. were scarce. These results testify to the occurrence of pathogenic germs in surface water in the city of Maroua. Hence the resurgence of epidemic diseases such as Cholera.