Microbial and Physicochemical Qualities of River Owena Water: An Important Source of Domestic Water in Owena Metropolis

Microbial quality, physicochemical parameters and heavy metals determination of water samples from River Owena, Oriade local government area, Owena, Nigeria. For period of dry and wet seasons. The pH of water ranged from 6.72 to 7.52±0.01, dissolved oxygen ranged from 5.95 to 7.63±0.01 mg/l, biological oxygen demand ranged from 3.20 to 11.47±0.01 mg/l. Other physicochemical parameters measured for the water included alkalinity, turbidity total solids, suspended solids, dissolved solid, total hardness, calcium hardness, magnesium hardness, temperature and conductivity which were of higher values during dry season compared to wet season. The MPN index ranged from 7 to1100 cfu/100 ml, mean concentrations of heavy metals in water such as iron, zinc, manganese, lead, chromium, cadmium, nickel and copper, iron had the highest values of 1.1 to 3.3±0.01 mg/l and cadmium had lowest values of 0.01 to 0.06±0.01 mg/l. A total of ten bacterial species were isolated from River Owena water, which included Escherichia coli, Enterobacter aerogenes, Klebsiella pneumoniae, Staphylococcus aureus, S. epidermidis, Salmonella enteritidis, Micrococcus luteus, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Proteus vulgaris and Shigella sonnei. A total of eight fungal species were isolated from water of River Owena, which included Aspergillus niger, A. flavus, A. fumigatus, Cladosporium herbarum, Mucor mucedo, M. plumbeus, Fusarium oxysporum and Rhizopus oryzae. The total bacterial count of the water ranged from 2.2 x 103 to 2.25 x 103 ±0.01 cfu/ml. The total fungal count of the water ranged from 6 x 103 to 1.22 x 103±0.01 sfu/ml. However, the quality of the water from this river did not conform to the drinking standard of world health organization (1984) hence poor due to the presence of some pathogenic microorganisms and heavy metals which are of public health significance, but it could be improved upon with appropriate treatment.