Bacterial Densities and Physicochemical Qualities of Surface Water Sources in Some Selected Communities of Ekiti State

Abstract

The present study attempts to bring on acute awareness among the people about the quality of surface water samples used for drinking in selected communities of Ekiti State. The experiment analyses their bacterial density and physicochemical parameters such as pH, (7.2–8.1), temperature (22.2–29.0°C) conductivity (6–49 µs/cm), total dissolved solids (0.045–163 mg/L), total suspended solids (0.014–102 mg/L), total hardness (40–102 mg/L), biological oxygen demand (2.3–10.4 mg/L), nitrate (1.7–21.34 mg/L), phosphate (0.05–1.05 mg/L), chloride (5.0–42.5 mg/L), calcium (16.5–43.0 mg/L), magnesium (7.3–24.0 mg/L) and iron (0.04–0.96 mg/L). The results were compared with standards of WHO, USPH and European, in which they were all within the permeable limit except turbidity (50%), BOD (50%) and DO (11.11%) exceeding the limit. A systematic correlation study showed significant linear relationship among different pairs of water quality parameters. The total bacterial performed on the surface water ranged between 68 and 118x10³ Cfu/ml, total coliform ranged between 16 and 29x10³ Cfu/ml, the total enterococcus count ranged between 6 and 13x10³ Cfu/ml and total salmonella count of range 16–14x10³ Cfu/ml. The counts were higher than the WHO limits. A total of 2439 isolates were counted and the pure cultures were subjected to gram staining and biochemical tests and the results were compared with those of known taxa. A total of 16 bacteria genera were identified and their percentage occurrence were as follows; Proteus sp. (5.0%), E.coli (13.3%), Klebsiella sp. (14.1%), Enterococcus sp. (5.1%), Streptococcus sp. (5.5%), Pseudomonas sp. (11.9%), Citrobacter sp. (5.4%), Enterobacter sp. (8.9%), Bacillus sp. (6.9%), Staphylococcus sp. (7.8%), Serratia sp. (3.0%), Micrococcus sp. (4.9%), Salmonella sp. (2.8%), Aeromonas sp. (2.0%), Alcaligen sp. (1.05%) and Acinetobacter sp. (1.65%). The presence of these organisms in the water samples could pose a health threat to the consumer, therefore proper treatment before consumption is required.