Hassane Mansour^{1, 2,}, Jean Marie Dikdim Dangwang³, Gomoung Doloum⁴, Ngongang Nantchouang Jordan², Guy Bertrand Noumi⁵, Albert Ngakou²

Water serves as a vehicle for the transmission of diseases such as typhoid fever, botulism, diarrhea, dysentery among others. However, the inadequate supply of clean drinking water and the frequent pollution of existing supplies have created very serious health problems for people living in developing countries. The assessment of bacteria germs in the Chari river including total coliforms, Escherichia coli, faecal enterocci, and Salmonella was conducted in the dry (Febuary) and wet (July) seasons, to ascertain the quality of its water used for several purposes (agricultural, household, and inductrial activities). Hence, 15 composites water samples were collected from 5 sampling sites (ChS1 to ChS5) along the Banda township in the middle-east province of Chad. The Multiple tube fermentation technique was used to determine total coliform count, whereas Eosin methylene blue was used to determine faecal coliform count. The total coliforms load was comprised between 2393.33 and 10483.33 UFC/100 mL in the dry, against 8002.67 and 17007 UFC/100 ml in the wet seasons. Faecal coliforms counts ranged between 204.33 and 3426.67 UFC/100 mL in the dry, compared to between 165(ChS4) and 1403.33 UFC/100 mL (site ChS3) in the wet season. Faecal enterococci concentrations varied between 0 UFC/100 mL and 225.67 UFC/100 mL in the dry, against 4300.67 UFC/100 mL and 5797.33 UFC/100 mL in the wet season. As for Salmonella counts, 40 % of samples as opposed to 80% were respectively positive in the dry and wet seasons. According to the WHO guidelines, these germ’s loads are elevated and indicate that water from the Chari river is unsafe for consumption, accounting for by bacteria contamination of human and animal origins. There is a need to educate the public about the quality of their water sources, the importance of clean and healthy surroundings of water sources, and to implement household water treatment to improve the water quality and reduce waterborne diseases they have been exposed to.

Water quality, bacteria contamination, Chari river, Banda, Chad