International Journal of One Health, EISSN: 2455-8931 76 International Journal of One Health Available at www.onehealthjournal.org/Vol.6/No.1/13.pdf RESEARCH ARTICLE Open Access Bacteriological quality of water in private wells and boreholes in Makurdi Metropolis, Benue State, Nigeria Ruth Adi Agyo , Raph Agbo Ofukwu, Anthony Ekle J. Okoh and Charity A. Agada Department of Veterinary Public Health and Preventive Medicine, Federal University of Agriculture, Makurdi, Nigeria. Corresponding author: Ruth Adi Agyo, e-mail: ruthagyo@gmail.com Co-authors: RAO: ofukwu@hotmail.com, AEJO: profokohanthon45@gmail.com, CAA: caysla@gmail.com Received: 06-12-2019, Accepted: 01-05-2020, Published online: 20-06-2020 doi: www.doi.org/10.14202/IJOH.2020.76-82 How to cite this article: Agyo RA, Ofukwu RA, Okoh AEJ, Agada CA (2020) Bacteriological quality of water in private wells and boreholes in Makurdi Metropolis, Benue State, Nigeria, Int. J. One Health, 6(1): 76-82. Abstract Aim: This study aimed at examined the presence of coliform bacteria in private wells and boreholes (BH) in peri-urban areas of Makurdi, Benue State, Nigeria, using the approaches of most probable number (MPN) index and coliform count. Materials and Methods: Seven hundred and sixty-eight water samples were randomly collected during a 1-year period from non-cased wells, burn brick cased wells (BBW), concrete cased wells, and BH in four locations; A, B, C, and D during the wet and dry seasons. One liter of water was obtained from each well at every visit to the four sites, and eight water samples were collected from each visit. The samples were analyzed using multiple tube fermentation methods and pour plate techniques to determine the MPN of coliform/100 ml of water, reading from the MPN statistics table. Results: One-way analysis of variance statistics was applied using Duncan’s new multiple range test to separate the means where there was a significant difference. The result revealed that the MPN index and total coliform counts in all the wells in the locations were above the World Health Organization (WHO) permissible limit for potable water. The highest MPN index of 54.807 was recorded in Location A and followed by 42.679 in Location B. The MPN index in Locations C and D was 36.740 and 30.943, respectively. There was significantly (p=0.000) higher total coliform count in the wet season (41.48±7.09) than in the dry season (38.33±2.83). Conclusion: This study shows the presence of coliform bacteria isolates in all the wells and BH that exceeded the WHO permissible limits for drinking water. The water from these sources is unsafe for drinking except after dosing with appropriate germicides. Sensitization of the population on the actions they can take to make the water safe for domestic use is suggested. Keywords: coliform, contamination, Enterobacteriaceae. Introduction Estimates from the World Health Organization (WHO) indicate that about 884 million people in the world still do not have access to drinking water from safe sources, and 89% of these people live in devel- oping countries [1]. Lack of safe drinking water can have deleterious consequences and economic costs in morbidity, treatment, and death, particularly in Sub-Saharan Africa [2]. Diseases not limited only to cholera, typhoid, and the preventable hepatitis-A but also can occur as a result of the consumption of water contaminated with microbes [1-3], which may result in damage to liver, kidney, and heart [4,5]. In 2016 alone, the United Nations Children’s Fund chroni- cled an average of 2500 fatalities on a daily basis in Nigeria occasioned by water-borne pathogens [2]. The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control recorded 42,466 cases of water-borne cholera from 20 out of 36 States in 2017, which resulted in 830 (1.95%) fatalities [5]. Estimates from the USAID [6] disclosed that about 52% of Nigerians in urban areas do not have access to improved drinking water supply and it get to as high as 78% in the rural areas. Even in urban areas, where large water bodies such as major rivers exist, like the River Benue, the populace still suffers a lack of potable water supply, even when the necessary water processing facilities have been installed [7]. A typical example is Benue State, it is one of the most popu- lous states in Central Nigeria (about 600,000 inhabi- tants) [8] with its capital Makurdi suffering from acute shortages of safe and potable water supply [9]. This is despite the presence of the huge River Benue, which flows through 11 local government areas (LGAs) out of the 23 LGAs in the state [10]. The state capital, Makurdi, has an installed state-of-the-art water pro- cessing plant that can process 50,000 m 3 /day, yet the inhabitants cannot access safe water [9]. The perennial water shortages have compelled the residents of Makurdi to seek alternative sources of water supply, and typically the groundwater resource is considered safer and tapped. The water extraction methods include, mostly, the digging of open well, which are either unlined with a casing or lined with burnt brick casing or concrete casing, while those with the resource sink shallow boreholes (SBH) [9]. Copyright: Agyo, et al. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/ by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. 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