Effect of domestic solid waste disposal practices on quality of drinking water sources in some rural communities of Akwa Ibom State, Nigeria.

Poor waste disposal practices impinge on water quality. An assessment of the effect of domestic solid wastes disposal practices on microbial quality of drinking water sources was conducted in some rural communities of Akwa Ibom State, Nigeria. An ecological study design was adopted using quantitative methods and a multi-stage sampling technique for random selection of LGAs, communities, and households for the administration of questionnaires to 120 respondents within four communities. Microbiological analysis of water samples from various sources was also conducted. A total of 26 (43.3%) and 16 (26.7%) households in the coastal and upland areas respectively had waste disposal facilities, the remaining percentage dumped waste into rivers and nearby bushes. The majority of the coastal community dwellers defecate directly into water bodies or swamps due to a lack of faeces disposal facilities whereas all respondents in the upland areas had faeces disposal facilities though some were unimproved. The result of the microbial analysis showed that the coastal areas had a mean heterotrophic bacterial, coliform, and fungal count of 1.45(± 0.44) × 10 5  cfu/ml, 0.90(± 0.27) × 10 5  cfu/ml, and 1.75(± 0.50) × 10 5  cfu/ml while the upland areas had 1.34(± 0.55) × 10 5  cfu/ml, 0.65(± 0.36) × 10 5  cfu/ml, and 1.88(± 0.58) × 10 5  cfu/ml. There was no significant difference (P < 0.05) in microbial water quality between the coastal and upland areas besides the self-reported health problems. A moderate positive correlation was found between solid waste disposal practices and total bacterial count (r = 0.418**), and total coliform (r = 0.397**), P < 0.01. Most of the microorganisms isolated from drinking water in both settings were of public health importance. The result obtained from this study indicates very poor water quality in both settings. This implicates the poor solid waste disposal practices predominant in these communities and calls for immediate measures to secure the health of the rural community dwellers.