This study was carried out to determine the coliform contamination of public
boreholes and pipe borne water supplies within Bosso town. Twenty (20) water samples
comprising of 10 each of borehole and pipe borne samples were aseptically collected from Bosso
Town and analyzed using membrane filtration technique. The results obtained revealed that most
(60.0%) of the water samples from the borehole sources except the samples from Rafin-Yashi,
Maikunkele, Federal University of Technology (F.U.T) Minna, Tudun Fulani, contained coliform
counts within 10cfu/100ml while all (100.0%) of the pipe borne water samples had coliform
counts above 10cfu/100ml. The organisms isolated included species of
Escherichia
,
Pseudomonas
,
Streptococcus
,
Staphylococcus
,
Salmonella
,
Genus
,
Clostridium
,
Shigella
,
Yersinia
and
Serratia
.
E.coli had the highest frequency of occurrence (20%) followed by
Staphylococcus aureus
(11.7%),
Salmonella spp (11.7%),
Shigella spp (11.7%),
Clostridium spp
(8.3),
Streptococcus faecalis
(8.3%),
Pseudomonas aeruginosa
(6.7%),
Bacillus subtilis
(6.7%),
Streptococcus pyrogenes
(5%),
Klebsiella
spp (3.3%)+,
Proteus vulgaris
(3.3%),
Yersinia spp
(1.7%) and
Serratia spp (1.7%). This study revealed that pipe borne water and borehole water
samples were contaminated in Bosso, with greater contamination observed with pipe borne water.
This highlights the need for continuous assessment of the quality of public water supply and
intervention measures to prevent outbreak of water-borne diseases in the area.