Quality Assessment of Sachet Water Sold and Consumed in Ishiagu, Ivo Local Government Area of Ebonyi State, Nigeria

This study presents the result of a quality assessment of some sachet water sold and consumed in Ishiagu. Four sachets from each Triplicate batch of the six different brands of 50 cL sachet water were sampled from commonly patronized retail shops by the inhabitants of the study areas, physically examined and assessed for their physicochemical and microbiological parameters using standard analytical procedures to ascertain the level of compliance with World Health Organization (WHO) and National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) standards for drinking water. The results of the physicochemical analyses showed that the pH value ranged from 6.20 ± 0.02 to 7.60 ± 0.23, temperature ranged from 25.8 ± 0.01℃ to 27.6 ± 0.33℃, electrical conductivity ranged from 11.11 ± 0.78 μS•cm^-1 to 26.45 ± 1.02 μS•cm^-1, total dissolved solids ranged from 5.11 ± 0.01 m•gL^-1 to 16.77 ± 1.01 m•gL^-1, total alkalinity ranged from 19.53 ± 0.64 m•gL^-1 CaCO₃ to 33.50 ± 0.29 m•gL^-1 CaCO₃, total hardness ranged from 12.11 ± 1.22 m•gL^-1 CaCO₃ to 28.78 ± 0.40 m•gL^-1 CaCO₃, calcium ion ranged from 4.60 ± 0.11 m•gL^-1 to 10.88 ± 0.35 m•gL^-1, magnesium ion ranged from 0.20 ± 0.11 m•gL^-1 to 0.35 ± 0.45 m•gL^-1, sodium ranged from 3.05 ± 0.08 m•gL^-1 to 3.78 ± 0.10 m•gL^-1, potassium ranged from 0.43 ± 0.11 m•gL^-1 to 0.75 ± 1.00 m•gL^-1, chloride ranged from 7.34 ± 0.40 m•gL^-1 to 12.44 ± 0.22 m•gL^-1 in all the locations. However, the physicochemical parameters studied were within WHO and NAFDAC standards except for some chemical parameters like Ca²  , Mg²   , Na , K , and Cl^- that need to be elevated to meet the minimum allowable standards quality for drinking water. For the microbiological analysis, the results obtained indicated zero presence of bacterial colonies for both tests of total plate count (TPC) and total coliform count (TCC) in most of the sachet water brands. Although, some traces of cultivable bacteria were found in some sachet water in Amagu, Amonye, and Ihietutu locations. Nevertheless, the level of TPC and TCC in all the six-sachet water investigated at various locations was significantly below the standard permissible limit. This clearly indicated that most of the sachet water sold and consumed in Ishiagu is of good microbiological quality and thus suitable for human consumption.