Bacteriological and chemical quality of packaged water produced in Lusaka, Zambia and associated quality control measures
Date
2020
Authors
Banda, Rodney Kachikoti
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
The University of Zambia
Abstract
Many people in the world lack safe basic drinking water sources and rely on untreated water
sources. Unsafe drinking water is responsible for transmission of diseases such as Cholera,
Dysentery and Typhoid. Packaged water can be considered as an alternative to other water
sources if measures are put in place to ensure its safety for human consumption. Studies prior to
this one focused on the quality of water sold in Lusaka regardless of the district the water is
produced from. There has also been less focus on the quality control measures that may
influence quality.
A cross-sectional study was conducted to assess the bacteriological and chemical quality of
packaged water produced in Lusaka and associated quality control measures. Water samples
from 17 companies producing packaged water in Lusaka were analyzed for total and feacal
coliforms as well as concentrations for Lead, Chromium and Cadmium. Stata version 15 was
used for data analysis. The fisher’s exact test was used to test for associations between the
quality of packaged water and quality control measures.
The study found that 35.3 percent of the packaged water produced in Lusaka did not comply
with the standard for drinking water on bacteriological quality. It also found that the
concentrations for Lead were less than 0.01mg/l in all the 17 samples, thus compliant to
WHO/ZABS standards. Concentrations of Chromium were between 0.002mg/l and 0.62mg/l
and compliance to the standard was 11.8 percent. Concentrations for Cadmium were as low as
0.009mg/l and as high as 0.2mg/l as such, non-compliant. All brands of packaged water from
companies inspected quarterly by Lusaka City Council were compliant to the bacteriological
standards of drinking water. Packaged water produced by companies that own bacteriological
laboratories accounted for 47.1 percent of satisfactory results while only 17.3 percent were
satisfactory from companies without bacteriological laboratories. None of the companies had
means of removing heavy metals from water during processing.
Both the bacteriological and chemical quality of the packaged water need to be improved to
safeguard the health of the people. Processing of the water should therefore target removal of all
bacteria and heavy metals. Government agencies should also monitor the companies regularly to
ensure compliance to standards.
Description
Thesis
Keywords
Mineral water--Zambia