Faecal Contamination of Well Water in Garoua (Cameroon): Importance of Household Storage and Sanitary Hygiene

Abstract

A study was carried out in the Garoua region (Cameroon, Central Africa) in order to assess the faecal contamination of well water and stored well water samples in relation with sanitary hygiene. Data were collected from wells and household -stored well water. A survey had been conducted at same period to assess hygienic behaviors of the population using well water. Bacteriological analyses were performed using Membrane Filtration and Plate Count techniques. It was noted that the abundance of Heterotrophic Aerobic and Mesophilic Bacteria (HAMB) ranged from 1.2×10³ to 7.3 × 10⁴ CFU·mL^-1. The number of faecal coliforms varied from 1.3×10² to 7.0 x 10³ CFU·100 mL^-1 in sampled wells water. For staphylococci, abundances varied between 5.0×10¹ and 2.1× 10³ CFU.100 mL^-1 in well water samples. The lower abundance of Enterobacteriaceae was 1.5×10³ and the higher 2.2x10⁴ CFU.100 mL^-1 in well water samples. The pH values of well waters were between 4.4 and 8.1. For the well water samples, the values of electrical conductivity (EC) were between 81.5 and 2180.0 μS·cm^-1. The concentrations of TDS fluctuated between 60.1 to 1530.0 mg·L^-1 in water samples. The salinity of water ranged from 42.3 to 1100.0 ppm. Variations in bacterial abundances were significantly in the opposite direction of electrical conductivity, salinity and TDS concentrations (p<0.05 and p<0.01). However, there was no significant correlation between staphylococci abundances and salinity / TDS concentrations (p>0.05). During water storage, there was increase in bacterial abundance due to storage conditions, physicochemical properties of water and poor hygiene. The results highlight the need of well water treatment and safe storage as well as sanitary hygiene improvement to reduce waterborne diseases in the region.