Microbiological Quality of Packaged Drinking Water Marketed within Sokoto Metropolis

All living things are composed primarily of water and none of the cell either prokaryotic or eukaryotic can develop and grow without water. Drinking of clean and uncontaminated water is essential to quality health and wellbeing. The study was conducted to determine the microbiological quality with a view to ascertain the safety of packaged (sachet and bottled) drinking water marketed within Sokoto metropolis. A total of 165 samples which comprises of three samples each of the packaged water brands (n=55) were randomly purchased and transported in a cool boxes to veterinary microbiology laboratory of Usmanu Danfodiyo university Sokoto, Sokoto state, Nigeria for microbiological analysis. Standard procedure of bacteria examination of water which comprises up of presumptive, confirmatory and completed tests were employed. Similarly, the number of coliform bacteria were estimated using the Most Probable Number (MPN) technique. Out of the total number of samples (n=165) collected and processed; only six were found to contained coliform bacteria emanating from three sachet water brands and none from bottle water brands, with occurrence rate of 3.6 %. Escherichia coli was identified in all the positive samples obtained, however, Klebsiella spp. , Citrobacter spp. and Escherichia Faecalis were not found in any of the samples analyzed. As promise, a writing recommendations was issued to affected companies on the need to improve the quality and hygiene of the water treatment and processing practices