Physicochemical and Bacteriological Quality of Public Swimming Pools in the Tamale Metropolis, Ghana

Umar Farouk Mustapha, Seth Mensah Abobi and Gerard Quarcoo
Additional contact information
Umar Farouk Mustapha: Guangdong Research Center on Reproductive Control and Breeding Technology of Indigenous Valuable Fish Species, Key Laboratory of Marine Ecology and Aquaculture Environment of Zhanjiang, Key Laboratory of Aquaculture in South China Sea for Aquatic Economic Animal of Guangdong Higher Education Institutes, Fisheries College, Guangdong Ocean University, Zhanjiang 524088, China
Seth Mensah Abobi: Department of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources Management, University for Development Studies, Tamale P.O. Box TL 1882, Ghana
Gerard Quarcoo: Council for Scientific and Industrial Research-Water Research Institute, Microbiology Division, Tamale P.O. Box TL 695, Ghana

J, 2020, vol. 3, issue 2, 1-14

Abstract: The study focused on the physicochemical and bacteriological quality of public swimming pools in the Tamale Metropolis. Physicochemical properties such as pH, temperature, and conductivity, and bacteria counts—including total coliform, faecal coliform, Escherichia coli (E. coli) , Staphylococcus aureus , and total heterotrophic bacteria—were analyzed for their conformity with required health standards. The results obtained were analyzed using Student t test and compared with World Health Organization (WHO) and Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) standards for safe recreational and drinking water. The highest and the lowest temperatures were recorded in April (32.53 °C) and February (28.16 °C), respectively. The lowest and the highest mean pH values were 4.04 and 6.13, which were below acceptable standards. The conductivity level varied from 469.1563 µS cm −1 to 928.1563 µS cm −1 . While the pH did not conform to acceptable standards, temperature and conductivity were within the EPA and/or the WHO acceptable limits. The total coliform (TC) expressed in colony-forming units per 100 mL ranged from 0 to 397 (cfu/100 mL), faecal coliform (FC) 0 to196 cfu/100 mL, E. coli 0 to 52 cfu/100 mL, Staphylococcus aureus ( S. aureus ) 8 to 27 cfu/100 mL, and Total Heterotrophic Bacteria (THB) 44 to 197 (cfu/mL). TC, FC, E. coli , S. aureus, and THB counts in most of the samples complied with the bacteriological standards. However, the bacterial loads increased and exceeded the WHO and/or EPA standards as the number of bathers increased. Besides, there were positive correlations between physicochemical parameters such as temperature, pH, and bacterial loads. Most parameters studied met the acceptable standards of recreational water stipulated by the WHO and EPA. However, the presence of pathogenic organisms in the recreational waters at any point in time should be treated as a public health concern, and hence a call for routine monitoring and inspection of public swimming pools in the Tamale Metropolis.

Keywords: physicochemical parameters; bacteria counts; recreational water; WHO; public health concern (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I1 I10 I12 I13 I14 I18 I19 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2571-8800/3/2/18/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2571-8800/3/2/18/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jjopen:v:3:y:2020:i:2:p:18-249:d:365516

Access Statistics for this article

J is currently edited by Ms. Angelia Su

More articles in J from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().