ABSTRACT

Water is not only essential for life but also an indispensable factor in socio- economic development of any community. A wide array of parasitic threats to drinking water are in existence, especially   protozoa and helminthes. In view of this, parasitic and water quality assessment of drinking water sources at Nkwo-egwu community was carried out to ascertain the quality of this natural resource. To assess this, 45 water samples from 8 sources (Rainwater, Iyiocha, Iyiumuakam, Iyindika, private borehole, public borehole, sachet water and stored  water) were collected between March and August, 2016. The water samples were processed for physico-chemical and parasitological analysis method using macroscopy, filtration, centrifugation and microscopy for parasitological analysis while standard methods were adopted for physico-chemical analysis respectively. It was revealed that the water sources investigated had parasitic infestation. Streams had the highest prevalence of parasitic contamination 15(53.57%) followed by boreholes 7(24.99%) and stored water 4 (14.29%) while rainwater and sachet water recorded had the least 1(3.57%). Protozoans cysts were the most parasitic genera encountered with Entamoeba histolytica and Giardia lamblia accounting for 10(35.71%), followed by Entamoeba coli  2(7.14%). Helminthes eggs of Ancyclostoma duadenale and Ascaris lumbricoides accounted for 2(7.14%) and 4(14.29%) respectively. Higher prevalence of parasites 23(82.14%) were recorded in rainy season while 5(17.85%) of parasites were encountered in dry season. This may be due to the effect of rainfall. Physico-chemical analysis indicated that fluoride was found to be higher (2.85-21.2mg/l) than the stipulated standard, however, electrical conductivity, total dissolved solids (TDS), chloride, turbidity, dissolved oxygen (DO), hardness and nitrate conformed to the required standards. Most of the physico-chemical parameters tested in all the water samples were within the permissible limits stipulated by the drinking water standards whereas fluoride content is high hence the consumption of water with such fluoride content could cause skeletal fluorosis  but could be used for other domestic purposes. Findings from this study showed that the parasitic load of the water sample could constitute epidemiological threats to public health. Inhabitants of this community should boil or treat their water before consumption while Provision of portable water by both government and relevant stakeholders should be made available to the residents as this will reduce the rate at which the spread of water-borne parasitic diseases may occur.