Abstract

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Water occupies about 70% of the earth’s surface and is one of the most demanded of all urban and rural amenities, thus indispensable for human activities. Microbiological properties of water and sediment samples from four surface waters in Anambra state Nigeria were investigated for the evaluation of their pollution level. A total number of twenty (24) samples, with three (3) samples per sampling station were collected and examined in this study. Standard plate counts method was used to estimate the total aerobic, heterotrophic and coliform counts. The total aerobic heterotrophic bacterial counts obtained varied in each station from 3.6 x 104 cfu/ml – 2.23 x 105cfu/ml in the rainy season and from 3.2 x 104cfu/ml – 2.1 x 105cfu/ml in the dry season. The microorganisms found included Escherichia coli, Micrococcus sp., Pediococcus sp., Citrobacter sp., Planococcus sp., Flavobacterium sp., Mucor sp., Allescheria sp. and Saccharomyces sp. The average high iron content ranging from 6.4 – 52.55 mg/l was greater than the World Health Organization (0.3 mg/l) permissible range for drinking water. There was a negative correlation between the alkalinity value with total coliform of water, but positive correlation between the alkalinity values and the total coliform counts of the sediment and water. There was a significant difference at P <0.05 between the mean seasonal alkalinity values of the water and sediments. The findings revealed that the selected surface waters are highly contaminated with pathogenic microorganisms with poor physicochemical characteristics and remains unsafe for human consumption.This necessitates the need for primary prevention measures to be identified

Keywords: Water, sediment, surface waters, analysis