Bacteriological Assessment of Pharmaceutical Wastewater and its Public Health Implications in Nigeria.

Abstract

A total of 108 wastewater samples were collected for a period of three (3) months and analyzed for bacteriological properties. Wastewaters were collected from the point of discharge (PA), point of contact with the external environment (PB) and downstream of Chanchaga river (PC). The results of this study revealed that the Chanchaga River and its environment were polluted by wastewater discharge from the factory. The downstream of Chanchaga River (PC) had higher bacterial counts than the other sampling sites. The bacteria isolated were E. coli, Salmonella sp., Klebsiella sp., Bacillus subtilis, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Staphylococcus aureus, Proteus vulgaris, Clostridium sp. and Streptococcus faecalis. The mean total viable counts ranged from 4.8 × 104 cfu/mL to 3.0 × 108 cfu/mL, 2.0 × 107 cfu/mL to 4.0 × 108 cfu/mL for total coliform counts, 1.3 × 103 cfu/mL to 3.0 × 108 cfu/mL for Salmonella/Shigella counts, 340 MPN/100 mL to ≥ 1600 MPN/100 mL for fecal coliform (E. coli) and no Clostridium were detected in PA, while PB and PC had Clostridium counts of 2.0 × 103 cfu/mL and 1.0 × 103 cfu/mL, respectively, only in June. Analysis of variance (ANOVA) of the data showed that there were significant differences between the counts at 5% level of significance (P < 0.05), while there was no significant difference between the mean total viable counts, total coliform counts and Salmonella/Shigella counts for PA and PB. The PC fecal coliform (E. coli) counts were higher than the acceptable maximum limits (0 cfu/mL) prescribed by WHO for potable water. The results of this study revealed that discharged untreated pharmaceutical wastewater into the environment and Chanchaga River pollutes the river with pathogenic bacteria. This poses a health risk and could be hazardous to human health, especially to the communities that use water from the river for domestic purposes. Therefore, there is a need for wastewater treatment facility to be installed in the pharmaceutical factory to reduce the risk of health hazard to the users of Chanchaga River and for constant monitoring of the industrial wastewater discharged into the environment.