Abstract

The shortages in the distribution of drinking water from the public network in the municipality of Jacqueville lead the population of the peri-urban villages of the said municipality to turn to well water, the quality of which remains a concern. The objective of this study is to evaluate the hygienic quality of well water used by the population for their domestic needs. The measurement and sampling were carried out on eleven wells in three peripheral villages of the commune. The analysis covered ten physico-chemical parameters (T, pH, EC, Turbidity, salinity, NO3, NO2, NH4, PO4 and SO4) and three microbiological parameters (total coliforms, Escherichia coli and faecal streptococci). Principal component analysis (PCA) was applied to the data to highlight the phenomena causing the degradation of the water. The calculation of the fecal contamination index (FCI) revealed three classes of water quality: Uncontaminated wells, moderately contaminated wells, and heavily contaminated wells. The study of the general quality shows that most of the wells studied had warm, turbid water with a high population of pathogenic microorganisms. This study highlighted the health risk incurred by the population when consuming the water from these wells without prior treatment.

Key words: Assessment, physicochemistry, microbiology, well, Jacqueville, Côte d’Ivoire.