RELATIVE BACTERIOLOGICAL ASSESSMENT OF PUBLIC BOREHOLE AND WELL WATER IN BOSSO TOWN, NORTH-CENTRAL NIGERIA

Abstract

Background: Water is an essential requirement for the survival of living organisms especially human but is also important in the transmission chain of many human diseases since certain pathogens which are capable of causing life-threatening disease survive in water.Aim: This study was carried out to determine the relative bacteriological quality of borehole and well water supplies within Bosso town. Method: Twenty (20) water samples comprising of 10 each of borehole and well samples were aseptically collected from Bosso Town and analyzed using membrane filtration technique. Result: The results obtained showed that most (60.0%) of the water samples from the boreholes sources except the samples from Rafin-Yashi, Maikunkele, F.U.T Minna, Tudun Fulani, contained coliform counts below 10cfu/100ml while the majority (90.0%) of the well water sampled had coliform counts above 10cfu/100ml. The organisms isolated included species of Escherichia, Pseudomonas, Streptococcus, Staphylococcus, Salmonella, Shigella, Clostridium, Bacillus, Yersinia, Serratia e.t.c. E.coli had the highest frequency of occurrence (25%) followed in descending order by Staphylococcus aureus (8.3%), Salmonella spp (8.3%), Pseudomonas aeruginosa (8.3%), Bacillus subtilis (8.3%),Clostridium spp (6.7%),Streptococcus feacalis (6.7%), Shigella spp (6.7%), Streptococcus pyogenes (5%), Klebsiella spp (5%), Proteus vulgaris (5%), Yersinia spp (3.3%) and Serratia spp (3.3%). Conclusion: This study reveals that well water and borehole water samples were contaminated with greater contamination observed with well water. This highlights the need for a continuous assessment of the quality of public water supply and intervention measures to prevent outbreak of water-borne diseases.