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MICROBIOLOGICAL AND PHYSICOCHEMICAL ASSESSMENT OF SACHET AND BOTTLED WATER SOLD IN BENIN CITY MARKETS WITH EMPHASIS ON ANTIBIOTIC-RESISTANT COLIFORMS.
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background to the Study
Safe drinking water is a basic human right and a pillar of overall health but it is still elusive to millions of Nigerians in urban and peri-urban areas where the lack of infrastructure, failed governance, and the resulting unplanned proliferation of people contracted conventional pipe-delivered water supply systems making them not only chronically untrustworthy and intermittent, but also completely lacking. Sachet water (also known as pure water in Benin City, the capital of the Edo State, and one of the largest urban centres in southern Nigeria) and bottled water have become the most prevalent types of drinking water delivery over the last three decades in the region and continue to jointly supply the daily hydrational demand of the estimated majority of the urban population (Adeyemi et al., 2021; Emojevwe This has seen the sachet water market in the city of Benin and in general the packaged water business grow exponentially with hundreds of registered and unregistered packaged water companies established in Benin City and out through the extensive informal market network of roadside hawkers, mobile hawkers, market stalls, and institutional canteens.
Fester scientific interest The microbiological quality of bottled drinking water in cities of Nigeria has been of sustained scientific interest since the widespread commercialization of sachet water in the early 2000s. Routine samplings of several cities in Nigeria, such as Lagos, Ibadan, Enugu, Kano, or Calabar, have reported worrying prevalence percentages of coliform contamination, presence of fecal indicator organisms, and isolation of pathogenic bacteria of sachet and bottled water products, which had indicated systemic malfunctions in the management of source water quality and effectiveness of treatments, hygiene of packaging, and cold Such results are more immediately consequential considering that the source of childhood diarrhoea-causing diseases by contaminated drinking water is still a leading cause of morbidity and mortality among children under the age of five years in Nigeria that has the third-highest burden of childhood diarrhoea worldwide (World Health Organization, 2022).
The rise and expansion of antibiotic resistance in waterborne bacteria has turned the microbiological safety of drinking water, longer dominated by the measure of exposure to enteropathogenic bacteria, into a wider and more multifaceted, and public health crisis. The presence of antibiotic-resistant coliforms in the drinking water sources symbolizes two planetary issues – waterborne infection and the antimicrobial resistance – stacking their half-way implications on the results of treatment, clinical costs, and the security of the community health (Iwu et al., 2020; Abafe et al., 2022). Nevertheless, coliforms, especially the family Enterobacteriaceae, such as Escherichia coli, Klebsiella pneumoniae, Enterobacter spp., and Citrobacter spp., are not only positive indicators of fecal contamination and co- occurrence of potential pathogens, but also well-characterized reservoirs and vectors of mobile antibiotic
The growth of antibiotic-resistant coliforms in the Benin City water supply chain is feasibly explained by multiple overlapping factors: informal packaged water producers use untreated or poorly treated boreholes and surface water as source waters; disinfection Although extensively developed in design, the NAFDAC regulatory framework of packaged water quality in Nigeria is burdened with well-reported enforcement problems such as lack of laboratory facilities, insufficient frequency of inspections, and limited technical resources, which all limit its efficacy in assuring the microbiological safety of water products that reach consumers (Adesoji et al., 2020).
Although the general public health importance of antibiotic-resistant coliforms in packaged drinking water is being evident, systematic, market, wide studies documenting the prevalence, diversity, resistance phenotyping (phenotyping) and resistance genotyping of coliform bacteria in both sachet and bottled (water) sold in Benin city markets seems conspicuously missing in the published scientific literature. The studies available in-city are small in number, are geographically constrained, and methodologically diverse; studies lack the more recent molecular typing tools that would allow epidemiological connection of water-borne resistance determinants to clinical isolates. This research thus fills a critical and urgent gap in knowledge that has direct implications on consumer protection, regulatory policy, and antibiotic resistance surveillance both in Edo State and Nigeria in general.
1.2 Statement of the Problem
The lack of control in the growth of packaged water manufacturing and sales operations in the Benin City markets as well as the failure of the quality assurance infrastructure in the sachet and bottled water supply chain have given rise to an environment which is very conducive to the microbiological contamination of directly consumed and untreated products by the millions of urban residents. The specific risk of antibiotic-resistant coliforms within such products is exacerbated by the fact that antibiotic self-medication and antibiotic misuse already exist on a high background in the community and that these traits then provide a reservoir of antibiotic resistance determinants in the environmental bacteria that can spread far and wide across the urban population. Without up-to-date, thorough, and methodologically rigorous data on the microbiological quality of sachet and bottled water in Benin City markets, specific public health-intervention, regulatory enforcement efforts, and consumer protection efforts can not be optimally designed or prioritized. The need to create such data is therefore extremely pressing, which justifies this study.
1.3 Justification for the Study
This study is warranted by three converging imperatives. First, the direct public health relevance of drinking water safety for the approximately 1.5 million residents of Benin City who rely predominantly on packaged water as their primary drinking water source necessitates current, high-quality data on product microbiological quality to inform protective interventions. Second, the intersection of drinking water contamination with antibiotic resistance surveillance constitutes a research priority globally recognized by the World Health Organization’s One Health Action Plan on Antimicrobial Resistance, making data from underserved African urban contexts particularly valuable to the global evidence base (WHO, 2022; Adelowo et al., 2022). Third, the investigation of resistance phenotypes and genotypes in water-associated coliform populations will provide unique insights into environmental antibiotic resistance ecology in a Nigerian urban setting, contributing to the understanding of resistance gene flow between environmental, animal, and human-associated bacterial communities (Iwu et al., 2020; Abafe et al., 2022).
1.4 Objectives of the Study
The aim of this study is to conduct a comprehensive microbiological and physicochemical assessment of sachet and bottled water sold in Benin City markets, with specific emphasis on the occurrence, characterization, and antibiotic resistance profiles of coliform bacteria.
The specific objectives are to:
- Determine the physicochemical parameters (pH, turbidity, conductivity, total dissolved solids, hardness, nitrate, and chloride) of sachet and bottled water samples collected from Benin City markets.
- Assess the total viable count, total coliform count, and fecal coliform count of sachet and bottled water samples using standard microbiological methods.
- Isolate, identify, and characterize coliform bacteria from contaminated water samples using biochemical tests and 16S rRNA gene sequencing.
- Determine the antibiotic resistance profiles of isolated coliforms using the Kirby-Bauer disc diffusion method against clinically relevant antibiotics.
- Screen antibiotic-resistant isolates for resistance genes including ESBL-encoding genes (blaTEM, blaSHV, blaCTX-M), carbapenem resistance genes (blaKPC, blaOXA-48, blaNDM), and mobile colistin resistance genes (mcr-1) using polymerase chain reaction.
1.5 Research Hypotheses
H₀₁: There is no significant difference in total coliform counts between sachet water and bottled water samples sold in Benin City markets.
H₀₂: Antibiotic-resistant coliforms are not significantly prevalent in packaged drinking water sold in Benin City markets.
H₀₃: The physicochemical parameters of sachet and bottled water samples do not significantly deviate from the WHO and NAFDAC permissible limits for packaged drinking water.
1.6 Scope of the Study
The study will encompass sachet and bottled water samples collected from major markets in Benin City including New Benin Market, Uselu Market, Oba Market, and Ring Road market area, with a total sample size to be determined by power calculation. Microbiological analysis will focus on coliform and fecal coliform bacteria. Antibiotic resistance testing will employ standard clinical panels. Molecular analysis will be restricted to the resistance genes listed under the objectives. The study will not include mineral water or water from dispensing machines.
1.7 Significance of the Study
The outcomes of this research will provide regulators at NAFDAC, the Edo State Ministry of Environment, and the Edo State Ministry of Health with current, evidence-based data on the microbiological safety of packaged drinking water in Benin City. These data will support targeted enforcement actions against non-compliant producers, inform consumer protection campaigns, and contribute to the national antimicrobial resistance surveillance database. The molecular resistance gene data generated will be among the first reported for water-associated coliforms in Benin City and will add to the globally important but Africa-deficient evidence base on environmental antibiotic resistance ecology (Adelowo et al., 2022; Iwu et al., 2020). The study will also serve as a model for packaged water quality assessment methodology applicable by health institutions across southern Nigeria.
1.8 Definition of Terms
Coliform Bacteria: Gram-negative, rod-shaped, facultatively anaerobic bacteria capable of fermenting lactose with gas production within 48 hours at 35°C, used as indicators of water microbiological quality; examples include Escherichia coli, Klebsiella spp., and Enterobacter spp. (Oladeinde et al., 2021).
Fecal Coliforms: A subset of coliforms capable of fermenting lactose at 44.5°C, indicative of recent fecal contamination and potential co-occurrence of enteric pathogens (WHO, 2022).
Antibiotic-Resistant Coliforms: Coliform isolates demonstrating resistance to one or more clinically important antibiotic classes based on standardized susceptibility testing criteria from the Clinical and Laboratory Standards Institute (CLSI) or the European Committee on Antimicrobial Susceptibility Testing (EUCAST) (Iwu et al., 2020).
Extended-Spectrum Beta-Lactamases (ESBLs): Enzymes produced by certain members of the Enterobacteriaceae that confer resistance to extended-spectrum cephalosporins and penicillins through hydrolysis of the beta-lactam ring; encoded by mobile genetic elements that facilitate horizontal gene transfer among bacterial populations (Adelowo et al., 2022).
Sachet Water: Packaged drinking water sold in small polyethylene sachets, typically 500 mL to 750 mL in volume, which constitutes the most widely consumed form of commercial drinking water in Nigerian urban markets (Emojevwe & Iyeke, 2022).
Physicochemical Parameters: Measurable physical and chemical properties of water including pH, temperature, turbidity, total dissolved solids, electrical conductivity, hardness, nitrate, and chloride, which collectively indicate water quality and suitability for human consumption (Adesoji et al., 2020).
REFERENCES
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Adelowo, O. O., Fagade, O. E., & Ingham, C. J. (2022). The antibiotic resistome of surface waters in Nigeria: A growing environmental and public health problem. Environmental Pollution, 296, 118764. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envpol.2021.118764
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