ABSTRACT
Groundwater is the major source of water in many hospitals which is extracted through domestic boreholes for public and private use. This study was carried out to access the physicochemical and microbiological properties of borehole water found in hospitals in Benin City. Borehole water samples were collected from three different hospitals (Hospital A, Hospital B and Hospital C) around Benin City, Edo State and kept in sterile plastic container to avoid additional contamination before taken to the laboratory for physicochemical and bacteriological assessment. Following standard procedures, microbiological analysis was carried out to check for the occurrence or nonoccurrence of microbes. The results showed presence of microorganisms in the water samples. The highest heterotrophic and coliform counts were seen in hospital C (NA= 81.0±0.5 and EMB= 56.0±0.7), while the lowest was observed in hospital B (NA= 7.0±0.5 and EMB= 1.0±0.5). The probable identified bacterial isolates were Salmonella sp., Pseudomonas sp., Bacillus sp., Micrococcus sp., Shigella sp., Klebsiella sp., Enterobacter sp., Staphylococcus sp., Escherichia coli and Klebsiella sp. Physicochemical parameters analyzed included; pH, turbidity, total dissolved solids, heavy metal composition, etc. This analysis revealed that the highest pH value (6.06±0.33) was observed in water from hospital A, total suspended solids (1.30±0.08 mg/ml), turbidity (2.73±0.11 NTU), nitrate (1.05±0.05 mg/ml), phosphate (0.23±0.00 mg/ml), sulfate (1.84 mg/ml), biological oxygen demand (0.03±0.01 mg/ml) and chemical oxygen demand (0.81±0.09 mg/ml) was seen in Hospital B. No heavy metals were found in water gotten from each of the hospitals. This study reveals that water sources without treatment would pose possible environmental hazard or health effect and consequently, should adopt treatment methods such as water softening, deionization, disinfection using chemicals such as chlorine, etc. Environmental agencies should also ensure compliance with relevant standards to avoid risks to human health.
