Water and Waterborne Diseases: A Review

Abstract

Despite numerous efforts by government at various levels and other agencies interested in water and its safety, waterborne diseases are still a major public health and environmental concern. The huge investment towards water research, although worth the spending, has not yielded the much expected result as waterborne diseases continue to plague developing countries with Africa and Asia having the worse hit. The unavailability of pipe-borne water and the dependence of rural dwellers on surface waters which are often contaminated with faecal materials are undoubtedly the major causes of the rising prevalence of waterborne diseases. Water availability and poor hygienic practices amongst these rural dwellers are also of paramount concern as they play significant roles in the spread of water-washed diseases. Also, poor environmental practice which encourages the breeding of insects and other forms of vectors within residential areas contribute to the increasing prevalence of waterborne diseases. This review focuses on waterborne diseases, its classification and the various methods employed in the bacteriological analysis of water.

Hydrochemical Characterization of Benin Formation in Benin-city and Environs, Nigeria using Multivariate Analyses

“…The fears raised are in connection with unregulated and indiscriminate open dumping of solid wastes as well as flood control by injection of untreated storm water into the subsurface environment (Akpoborie, 2011;Oteze, 2011). Groundwater contamination has caused serious health implications in many parts of sub-Saharan Africa (Nwankwoala and Udom, 2011;Adewusi, 2012;Forstinus et al, 2016). This often calls for investigation into chemical status of groundwater in the shallow aquifer serving as source of water for different uses in the sub-region.…”

Microbiological Examination and Physicochemical Analysis of Estuary Water Used as a Point of Source Drinking Water

“…Access to unclean water is very significant from a public health point of view. It remains the main transmission route of water washed, water based and water borne diseases [7]. Waterborne diseases results in considerable morbidity and mortality amongst children under five years of age, elderly and immune-compromised persons [7].…”

“…Cultural based methods remain the most used methods for biological examination of water samples. These conventional techniques include total coliform test, multiple fermentation tubes or the most probable number and recently, the defined substrate and hydrogen sulphide techniques [7][8]. Cultural methods as reviewed recently are plagued with problems.…”

“…Cultural methods as reviewed recently are plagued with problems. These challenges include being time consuming, nonsensitive to viral and protozoan communities that might be present, and also limited to small culturable minority [7][8][9][10]. More worrisome is the formation of biofilms in natural water sources and even in drinking water distribution systems [8].…”

“…More worrisome is the formation of biofilms in natural water sources and even in drinking water distribution systems [8]. This has prompted the increasing use of more sensitive molecular based techniques [7][8][9].…”