Sanitary quality of Ulasi River, Okija, Anambra State, Nigeria

The sanitary and physical quality of four areas of activity in the Ulasi River, Okija, Anambra State, were studied in December 2004, using three samples collected at weekly intervals. The average temperature and pH values of samples ranged from 27.9oC to 29.0oC and 6.94 to 7.07 respectively. Total aerobic bacterial load, total coliform count and faecal coliform count were lowest or relatively low at the site for obtaining drinking water with mean values of 3.4x105 cfu ml-1, 2.8 x 102 cfu ml-1 and 5 MPN per100ml respectively. The processing site for Manihot esculenta and the laundry site had the highest bacteriological counts. Heterotrophic bacteria isolated included Pseudomonas sp., Klebsiella sp., Proteus sp., Escherichia coli, Citrobacter sp., Staphylococcus sp., Micrococcus sp., and Yersinia sp. The observations show that the Ulasi River is not safe for drinking without treatment, according to the WHO International Standard for Drinking Water.