Water may become contaminated at any point between collection, storage and usage. This study examined
the effects of storage on borehole water quality stored in plastic containers for prolong periods. Three brands of plastic
containers filled with borehole water were collected from homes in Ugbowo, Benin city. Physicochemical parameters were
determined using standard methods. Total bacterial and coliform counts were determined using the pour plate technique.
Conductivity, TDS, Chloride, Sulphate and Nitrate were within the recommended standards while turbidity and total iron were
above recommended standards. The isolates identified include:
Klebsiella
sp,
Bacillus
sp,
E. coli
,
Pseudomonas aeruginosa
,
Aspergillus flavus
,
Saccharomyces
sp and
Aspergillus niger
. The total bacterial count in the water samples ranged from
1.4×10
3cfu/ml to1.8×10
3cfu/ml at week four while fungal counts was 1.3×10
2cfu/ml to 1.6×10
2cfu/ml. Bisphenol A was
discovered to leach at detectable levels from the plastic containers as storage increased. The result of the BPA analysis revealed
that BPA congeners ranged from 0.023mg/l within days of collection to 0.251ml/l at the fourth week of storage. This study
has shown that storage of borehole water in plastic containers for prolonged period affects the bacteriological and chemical
properties of the water, hence storage of borehole water in plastic for prolonged periods should be discouraged and
discontinued.
