COMPARATIVE BACTERIOLOGICAL ANALYSIS OF WATER TANKS

ABSTRACT

The comparative bacteriological analysis of water tanks in the University of Benin Ugbowo campus was carried out to ascertain the variation of water quality of different storage tanks using standard microbiological techniques. Eight different water tanks were used which include; Hall one, Hall two, Hall three, Niger Delta Development Council hostel (NDDC), St Albert’s catholic church, Junior staff quarters (JSQ), Faculty of Life Science and Food court. The total heterotrophic bacterial count ranged from 1.50x103 + 0.74 cfu/ml to 36.00x103 + 2.8 cfu/ml; where the highest count was observed at JSQ and Hall one respectively and the lowest count was observed at St Albert’s and Food court respectively. The coliform count ranged from 2.5x103 + 2.2 to 12.5x103 + 2.1 cfu/ml; where the highest coliform count was observed at Hall one and JSQ respectively and the lowest coliform count was observed at Hall two and NDDC respectively. Using the cultural, morphological and biochemical tests, six species of bacteria were isolated during this study. They include; Escherichia coli, Klebsiella sp, Staphylococcus sp, Bacillus sp, Citrobacter and Enterobacter sp and bacteria counts obtained from this study were found to be higher than the accepted limit of the World Health Organisation (WHO) standard in all the various water samples collected. It was observed that water from most of the tanks are unsafe for consumption and measures should be put in place to regularly treat these tanks.