Assessment of Bacteriological Quality of Vended Water in Jerry Cans for Domestic Use in Zaria, Kaduna State, Nigeria

The practice of vending water in plastic jerry cans for domestic use has become a major source of household drinking water in Zaria due to inadequate pipe-borne water. The unhygienic practice of the water vendors and poor sanitary condition of the jerry cans and the water sources are of public health concern. Accordingly, this research was conducted to examine the bacteriological quality of vended water from jerry cans in Zaria city, Kaduna state, Nigeria. Water samples from five different vendors from twenty different locations were collected and used for isolation and enumeration of bacterial loads. The isolation and biochemical characterizations of the isolates revealed the presence of seven genera represented by eight bacterial species namely: Escherichia coli, Proteus mirabilis, Salmonella typhi, Klebsiella pneumoniae, Corynebacterium sp, Proteus vulgaris, Citrobacter freundi and Bacillus subtilis. Escherichia coli is the most predominant bacterial species among the vended water samples (44.44%) followed by S. typhi (18.52%) while Proteus mirabilis, Corynebacterium sp and Citrobacter freundi are the least prevalent with 3.70%. Most of the identified bacterial species in the samples were pathogenic. More so, the bacterial loads associated with the jerry cans water ranged between 1.0x106–8.0x106 CFU/mL from the plates count which is above WHO standard limit of ˂1.0x101 CFU/mL. It was therefore inferred that the bacterial counts associated with the jerry cans can pose public health risk. Proper sanitation and orientation on personal hygiene to the vendors are urgently needed. Keywords: Bacteria, Drinking Water, Jerry cans, Permissible limit, Zaria