Flooding is a recurrent event in Nigeria and its impact is usually devastating in Bayelsa due to the low topography. One effect of the recurrent flooding events is bacterial contamination of drinking water. Therefore, the bacterial contamination of sources of drinking water during flooding was investigated in the Yenagoa metropolis. Triplicate tap and flood water samples were collected at three different locations in the communities in Yenagoa metropolis and their bacterial content including bacterial load and culturable bacterial species were assessed. The results revealed the presence of feacal coliform, enterococci and total coliform, which were indications of possible bacterial contamination of tap water. Colony Forming Units of bacteria in samples of tap water collected after flooding (CFU-AF) reduced significantly when compared to those collected during flooding (CFU-DF). The diversity of bacterial species in the tap water also reduced from three to one during and after flooding, respectively.
JavaScript is turned off in your web browser. Turn it on to take full advantage of this site, then refresh the page.