Bacteriological Examination of Well Water in Wukari, Nigeria

Provision of portable drinking water is of public health concern especially in developing countries where this is unavailble. The bacteriological quality of well water in Wukari metropolis was examined. A total of fifteen samples, five from each of the three wards (Puje, Hospital and Avyi) in Wukari were analyzed for total bacteria load, total coliform and presence of bacteria species using standard microbiological techniques. The result showed that the total viable count of bacteria in all the samples ranged from 0.86×10 4 cfu/ml (W5A) to 3.04×10 4 cfu/ml (W14P). Total coliform ranged from 0.24×10 2 cfu/ml (W5A) to 1.84×10 2 cfu/ml (W13P). Bacteria isolated showed that Staphylococcus aureus was isolated from samples W1A, W2A, W3A, W4A, W8H, W9H, W12P and W13P, Pseudomonas species was present in W1A, W3A, W4A, W7H and W15P, Escherichia coli was isolated from W1A, W5A, W7H, W8H, W9H, W11P and W14P, Klebsiella species and Enterococcus species were isolated from W2A and W3A, W6H and W10H respectively. Salmonella species was present in W2A, W10H, W11P and W14P, Enterobacter species present in W5A, W13P and W15P while Proteus species was isolated from samples W6H, W7H, W8H, W12P and W15P. The occurrence of the organisms showed that Staphylococcus aureus was the highest (53.33%) followed by Escherichia coli (46.67%), Pseudomonas species and Proteus species (33.37%), Salmonella species (26.67%), Enterobacter species (20.00%) while Klebsiella species and Enterococcus species were the least with 13.33% occurrence respectively. The study has shown high level of bacterial contamination in all the samples. Hence, the need for well maintenance and hygienic practices by households to reduce the risk of disease outbreak from the organisms encountered in this study.