Étude des caractéristiques bactériologiques et physico-chimiques des eaux en sachets plastiques vendues dans la ville de Douala

English
Abstract

Water is a source of life because of its indispensable nature and especially for the important place, it occupies in our lives. This drinking water, packaged in plastic bags, is highly prized by the population because of its affordable cost, it’s refreshing character, its ease of consumption and its accessibility. However, the dubious quality and the lack of hygiene around its sale raise fears of health risks. With this in mind, we proposed to study the bacteriological and physico-chemical characteristics of water in plastic bags sold in the city of Douala in Cameroon. Our quantitative, cross-sectional, descriptive study was conducted over a three-month period from April to June 2022. Our study consisted in identifying 25 manufacturing companies corresponding to 25 brands of water in plastic bags in the city of Douala. These plastic sachet waters were analysed by the membrane filtration method for bacteriology and atomic molecular absorption spectrophotometry for physico-chemistry. The data compiled on sheets were inserted into Microsoft Excel 2013 and analysed using SPSS.25.0 software. Turbidity was non-compliant for all our waters (100%). Speaking of total dissolved solids, 100% of bagged water was non-compliant. We noted the presence of heavy metals in our waters such as ptalates and bisphenol. All our waters were non-compliant for ptalates. Regarding bacteriological parameters, all brands of sachet water studied were contaminated with either faecal coliforms, total coliforms, BHAM or all three groups of germs at the same time. The rates of non-compliance of bacteriological and physico-chemical parameters are very high. This water in plastic bags constitutes a danger for the health of the population.

Key words: Characteristics, bacteriological, physico-chemical, sachet water, Douala.