| dc.description.abstract | Water is the main component of the earth’s hydrosphere and fluids of all living organisms. Therefore, this makes it a very relevant factor of life whose safety and quality should be ensured. However, the water sources are often susceptible to microbial contamination based on the various ways that they are handled. Commonly contaminating microorganisms are the coliforms. Coliforms are bacterial microorganisms that rarely cause human diseases but their presence in a water source indicates the contamination of that particular water source with other micro biota that could be pathogenic.
Different water sources have varying amounts of coliforms and this is often dependent on the level of contamination of that water source. Microbial contamination is often from fecal contamination from animals and humans, combined sewage overflow, discharge from hospitals and agricultural land run offs.
Since not all residents can have access to safe water, some resort to natural sources. However, the microbial load of the water they obtain from the various natural sources like streams and rain is often unknown yet some microbes contained in such water are pathogenic and end up causing them water borne diseases and gastrointestinal disturbances like vomiting, diarrhea, nausea and abdominal pain.
This study focused on determination of the amounts of coliform bacteria in the different water sources in order to determine the extent to which its water is contaminated as well as the extent to which it is safe for drinking.
When the coliform values were compared, it was found out that, there was a significant difference in the abundance of coliforms between tap and borehole water, tap and stream water, roof and borehole water, roof and stream water, and borehole and stream water as indicated by their p- values of 0.0290, 0.0002, 0.0093, 0.0001 and 0.0124 respectively which is less than 0.05. However, there was no significant difference in the abundance of coliforms between tap and roof run off water as indicated by the p-value of 0.08277 which is greater than 0.05.
There was a significant difference between the abundance of E. coli in roof and stream water as indicated by the p- value of 0.0024 which is less than 0.05. However, there was no significant difference in the abundance of E. coli between tap and roof water, tap and borehole water, roof water and borehole water, and borehole and stream water as indicated by their p-values of 0.9921, 0.1529, 0.1041 and 0.0793 respectively which are greater than 0.05.
There was significant differences in the abundance of non coliforms between tap and borehole water, tap and stream water, direct rain water and roof run off water, direct rain water and borehole water, rainwater and stream water, roof run off water and borehole water and roof run off water and stream water as indicated by their p- values which are less than 0.05. On the other hand, there was no significant difference in the abundance of non coliforms between tap and rainwater, tap water and roof run off water, and borehole and stream water as indicated by their p- values which are greater than 0.05.
In conclusion, tap water and rain water contained the lowest E-coli amounts with the mean values of 5.67 and 0.33 CFUs/10mls respectively while stream water had the highest amounts with a mean value of 33.67 CFUs/10mls. Stream water had highest amounts of coliforms with a mean value of 60.67 CFUs/10mls while rain water had the lowest amounts of coliforms with a mean value of 0.33CFUs/10mls. Rain water had the lowest amounts of non coliforms with a mean value of 16.33CFUs/10mls while stream water had the highest amounts of non coliforms with a mean value of 98.67CFUs/10mls.
Results of the mean values of E. coli, coliforms and non coliforms indicate that tap water and rain water are safer for consumption compared to that of stream. | en_US |
