Abstract

Recreational water users can be exposed to a range of disease-causing microorganisms and pose public health concerns. This study assesses the presence of different microorganisms in recreational waters in Port Harcourt. Samples were collected from six recreational waters of swimming pool and rivers and were used to test for the microbial water quality. Spread plate technique was used to enumerate the microbial distribution. Biochemical tests, biofilm and haemolysis tests were conducted to confirm the presence of microorganisms. The results of the total heterotrophic bacterial count ranged from 0.68±0.44 to 2.7±2.1×10⁶ cfu/ml, total coliform count ranged from 0.00 ×10³ to 2.0×10⁵ CFU/ml, while total fungal count ranged from 1.0×10³ to 11.0×10³ CFU/ml. Bacterial isolates were identified as; Streptococcus sp, Staphylococcus sp, Micrococcus sp, Proteus sp, Serratia sp, Bacillus sp, Pseudomonas sp, Klebsiella sp, and Escherichia coli. While fungal isolates were identified as: Candida sp, Aspergillus sp, Penicillium sp and Saccharomyces sp. The frequency of occurrence for the isolates were 5.7%, 11.3%, 7.5%, 9.4%, 7.5%, 22.6%, 15.1%, 11.3%, and 9.4% respectively for the bacterial isolates and 25.7%, 34.3%, 22.9%, 17.1% for the fungal isolates respectively. Statistical analysis showed that there were no significant differences (P>0.05) in the microbial counts across the various recreational waters. The presence of these potential pathogenic microorganisms has been known to cause microbial diseases including: pneumonia, bloodstream infections, urinary tract infections, rashes, etc., suggests that there is need for constant monitoring of microbial quality of recreational waters.