ABSTRACT
Water is an essential element for the functioning of health facilities, but it can be a source of serious infections in case of contamination, especially for the people in rural environment. In most cases, people in rural environment lack municipal sewers, hence forcing residents to construct septic tank at close proximity to their wells. Indeed, it is not uncommon to find a well located just a few metres from an unlined septic tank. The microbiological, physical and chemical parameter of hand dug well located closed septic tanks was carried out using standard microbiological methods. Isolation was done by spread plate method using selective agar, Eosin-methylene-blue (EMB) agar and MacConkey agar. The physical and chemical analysis revealed that the pH level ranged from 4.4 to 7.6, temperature ranged from 25.6oC to 31.1oC, turbidity ranged from 0.34 NTU to 11.6 NTU. Two of the well water sampled were smelling fishy, four of the well water samples were smelling feacal, four of the water were odourless, five of the water samples were colourless, three of the water samples have reddish colour and two of the water samples were brownish. A total of ten isolates made up of 5 genera: Escherichia coli, Klebsiella spp., Proteus spp., Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Shigella spp. were isolated from well water. Total viable count of the water samples ranged from 1.1 × 103 cfu/ml to 3.0 × 103 cfu/ml and the coliform count of the water samples ranged from 1.6 × 103 CFU/ml to 3.2 × 103 cfu/ml. These result shows that the sampled well water served as reservoir of bacteria which is of great consequences to public health. It is recommended that a safe septic tanks separation distance of 48 m be maintained which will avoid contamination of well water from septic tanks.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
CHAPTER ONE
1.1 Introduction
1.2 General Objective
1.3 Specific Objectives of the Study
CHAPTER TWO: Literature Review
2.1 Water Quality of Hand Dug Wells
2.2 Water Quality Assessment Parameters
2.3 Standard of Water Quality
2.4 Needs for Water Supply and Sanitation
2.5 Waterborne Diseases
CHAPTER THREE: Materials and Methods
3.1 Study Area
3.2 Collection of Water Samples
3.3 Materials and Methods
3.4 Sterilization of Glassware
3.4.1 Physical and Chemical Analysis of the Water Samples
3.5 Microbiological Analysis
3.5.1 Morphological Characteristics
3.6 Biochemical Tests
3.6.1 Microscopic Identification of Bacteria Isolates Gram Staining
3.6.2 Catalase Test
3.6.3 Oxidase Test
3.6.4 Citrate Utilisation Test
3.6.5 Urease Test
3.6.6 Methyl Red Test
CHAPTER FOUR: Results
CHAPTER FIVE: Discussion, Conclusion and Recommendations
5.1 Discussion
5.2 Conclusion
REFERENCES
