THE MICROBIAL AND PHYSICOCHEMICAL QUALITIES OF WATER SUPPLY IN MICHAEL OKPARA UNIVERSITY OF AGRICULTURE UMUDIKE HOSTELS

References

Water is an essential element in the maintenance of all forms of life, and most living organisms can survive only for short periods without it (Kegley and Andrews, 1998).  Water is one of the most abundant and essential resources of man, and occupies about 70% of earth’s surface. About 97% of this volume of earth’s surface water is contained in the oceans, 21% in polar ice and glaciers, 0.3-0.8% underground, 0.009% in inland freshwaters such as lakes, while 0.00009% is contained in rivers (Eja, 2002). Water plays a key role in prevention of diseases; drinking eight glasses of water daily can decrease the risk of colon cancer by 45% and bladder cancer by 50% as well as reducing the risk of other cancers (APEC, 1999). Traditionally, the most important of the quality characteristics has been the concentration of dissolved salts because of the relationship between salt and land productivity. Later, health related characteristics such as presence of disease-causing microorganisms became important. More, recently, the introduction of anthropogenic chemicals, that have impact on health when present in trace amounts, has become a problem (Kegley and Andrews, 1998). Of all the water sources on earth, only 3% are good (in terms of quality or freshness). These drinking water sources include: surface water (rivers, lakes, streams and reservoirs) and groundwater (Kegley and Andrews, 1998). Ground water is the water beneath the surface where all the voids in the rocks and soil are filled. It is a source of water for wells, boreholes and springs. A borehole is a hydraulic structure which when properly designed and constructed, permits the economic withdrawal of water from an aquifer. It is a narrow well drilled with machine. Borehole water is the water obtained from borehole drilled into the aquifer or ground water zone, which is usually a fully saturated subterranean zone, some distance below the water table (NWRI, 1997). With the decline in the use of surface water for drinking water supply due to contamination, there is an increase in the reliance on ground water as drinking water source. Unfortunately, little attention is being paid to drinking water quality issues and quantity remains the priority focus during water supply projects. The need to define the quality of water has developed with the increasing demand for water which is suitable for specific uses and conforms to desired quality. Many different water collection and storage systems and strategies have been developed, described and evaluated on the basis of various criteria for household and community use (Harvey et al., 2004). Some of them have been evaluated in the field for their ability to reduce diarrheal and other waterborne diseases among users. Because of the importance of education, socio-cultural acceptance, changing people's beliefs and behaviors, achieving sustainability and affordability in the provision of safe water, some of the most promising household water treatment and storage systems and their implementation strategies include or are accompanied by efforts to address these considerations. It is necessary to critically review the various candidate technologies and systems for providing microbiologically improved household water and to identify the most promising ones based on their technical characteristics and performance criteria. These characteristics and performance criteria are: effectiveness in improving and maintaining microbial water quality, reducing waterborne infectious disease, technical difficulty or simplicity, accessibility, cost, socio-cultural acceptability, sustainability and potential for dissemination (Semenza et. al., 1998). Contrary to the popular belief that borehole waters are perfect, the portability study of ground water in Enugu town, South Eastern Nigeria, where 88 ground water samples were analyzed in order to evaluate their potability showed results that about 22% of the samples had concentrations of NO3 higher than the World Health Organization (WHO) standard, while 8 out of the samples analyzed for bacteriological quality showed evidence of sewage contamination. Also the identification of Escherichia coli in the water indicated faecal contamination (Onwuka, et al, 2004). Many infections are associated with the lack of accessibility to portable water supply and poor environmental sanitation especially in developing countries. The following are micro-organisms associated with water; Pseudomonas aeroginosa, Salmonella, Mycobacteria, Escherichia coli Proteus, Shigella sonnei, Klebsiella, Cyanobacteria (Muhammadet al., 2013). Water borne diseases are caused by pathogenic microorganisms which are directly transmitted when contaminated water is consumed. Cholera is a good example of water borne disease and it is endemic in some parts of Nigeria. In 1991,more than 16,000 people died worldwide from half a million case of cholera. Improved treatment has reduced the death rate dramatically, but it is still a serious disease (United Nations Environmental Programme,1997).

Worldwide, roughly 1.1 billion people lack access to safe water and 1.7 million people are said to die every year from water-diarrheal diseases (Cutter and Miller, 2005). The incidents of water borne disease and epidemics nationwide arising from drinking water of doubtful quality have become of great concern. The primary purpose of the guideline for drinking water quality is the protection of public health (WHO, 2006). Confirmation with physiochemical and microbiological standards is of special interest because of the capacity of water to spread diseases within a large population. Although, the standards vary from place to place, the objective anywhere is to reduce the possibility of spreading waterborne diseases to the barest minimum in addition to being pleasant to drink, which implies that it must be wholesome and palatable in all respects (Edema et al., 2000).